DYNASTY  OF  THE0D0S1US 


HODGKIN 


HENRY  FROWDE 


Oxford  University  Press  Warehouse 
Amen  Corner,  E.C. 


THE 

DYNASTY  OF  THEODOSIUS 

OR 

A  SERIES  OF  LECTURES  DELIVERED  TO 
THE  DURHAM  LADIES'  EDUCATIONAL  ASSOCIATION 

BY 

THOMAS  HODGKIN 

Hon.  D.C.L.  of  Oxford  and  Durham 
AUTHOR    OF    '  ITALY   AND    HER    INVADERS  ' 


AT  THE   CLARENDON  PRESS 

M.DCCC.LXXXIX 

[All  rights  reserved] 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2013 


http://archive.org/details/dynastyoftheodosOOhodg 


TO 

MY  WIFE  AND  CHILDREN. 


PREFACE. 


This  little  book  owes  its  existence  to  an  invitation 
addressed  to  me  by  the  Durham  Ladies'  Educational 
Association  to  deliver  to  them  a  short  course  of  his- 
torical lectures.  Being  allowed  to  choose  my  own 
subject,  I  naturally  chose  that  with  which  I  was  most 
familiar,  the  epoch  of  the  fall  of  the  Western  Empire : 
but  in  order  to  prevent  my  very  familiarity  with  that 
period  from  leading  me  into  diffuseness,  I  took  the 
precaution  of  writing  the  lectures,  and  thus,  I  believe, 
was  preserved  from  in  any  case  over-passing  the 
prescribed  limit  of  an  hour  and  a  quarter. 

When  my  course  was  completed,  I  found  that  I 
had  described  in  brief  outline  so  many  of  the  leading 
events  recorded  in  the  first  two  volumes  of  my  book, 
Italy  and  her  Invaders,  that  it  seemed  worth  while 
to  offer  the  result  of  my  labours  to  those  who  might 
not  care  to  peruse  the  larger  work.  In  order  to  give 
a  little  more  completeness  to  the  book,  I  added  a 
lecture  (the  Second)  on  the  political  and  social  con- 
dition of  the  Romans  and  barbarians,  which  was  not 
included  in  the  original  course. 

It  will  easily  be  understood  that  it  is  only  by  the 
rejection  of  many  minor  details  that  it  is  possible  to 


viii 


Preface. 


reduce  the  picture  of  eighty  eventful  years  within 
the  limits  of  a  compendium  like  the  present.  For 
most  of  these  details,  and  for  all  discussion  of  the 
authorities  on  which  the  history  of  the  period  rests, 
I  must  refer  to  my  larger  work.  Occasionally, 
however,  I  have  touched  upon  some  points  not 
thoroughly  discussed  in  Italy  and  her  Invaders,  and 
when  I  have  done  so,  I  have  stated  my  authority  in 
the  notes. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS, 


LECTURE  I. 
The  Roman  Empire. 

PAGE 

Limits  of  the  Empire   1-7 

Its  political  organisation — 

The  Senate         ........  7~9 

The  People   9-13 

The  Emperor      .       .       .       .       .       .       .       .  ^2>~ll 

Periods  of  Imperial  History — 

I.  The  Julian  and  Flavian  dynasties  ....  17 

II.  The  Antonine   18 

III.  The  Age  of  Anarchy   18-20 

IV.  Diocletian:  the  Age  of  Restoration       .       .       .  21-24 
Constantine  the  Great  ......  25-28 

Christianity  and  the  Empire   28-32 


LECTURE  II. 

The  Roman  and  the  Teuton. 

I.  The  Roman — 
The  Emperor 
The  official  hierarchy  . 
Social  condition  of  the  Empire 
'  Panem  et  Circenses  '  . 
The  Slave  .... 
The  Colonus 
The  Curialis 


00  ot 
37-44 
4^-48 

49 
50 
5* 

C2 


X 


Table  of  Contents. 


PAGE 

II.  The  Teuton — 

Economic  condition  of  the  Germans      .       .       .  55-60 

German  land-system     ......  60-62 

Relation  of  the  Village-community  to  the  State     .  62-65 

The  Pagus  or  Gau       ......  65 

Kingship  and  national  unity         ....  67-70 

The  Folc-gemot   .......  70-7  1 

Election  of  the  King    ......  72 

LECTURE  III. 

The  Coming  of  the  Huns. 

German  ethnology   73 

The  Goths   75 

Ulfilas                                                                  .  77-79 

Athanaric  and  Fritigern   79-80 

Irruption  of  the  Huns      .......  80-83 

The  Visigoths  seek  an  asylum  in  the  Empire  .       .       .  86-87 

The  Visigoths  cross  the  Danube      .....  88 

Roman  Emperors  :  Valentinian,  Valens,  Gratian     .       .  90-91 

The  banquet  at  Marcianople   ......  9I_93 

Gothic  War :  battle  of  Ad  Salices   94 

Battle  of  Hadrian ople   96-99 

LECTURE  IV. 
Theodosius. 

The  Goths  besiege  Constantinople          .       .       .       .  101 

Failures  of  the  Goths  as  besiegers    .....  102 

The  massacre  of  the  Gothic  boy-hostages        .       .       .  1 04 

Parentage  of  Theodosius         ......  106 

Theodosius  associated  in  the  Empire       .       .       .       .  107 

Orthodoxy  of  Theodosius        ......  108-110 

Athanaric  at  Constantinople    .       .       .       .       .       .  ill 

The  Goths  become  Foederati   11 3-1 17 

Insurrection  of  Antioch   .......  1 17-120 

Insurrection  of  Thessalonica    ......  120-122 

Usurpation  of  Maximus  .......  123-126 

His  defeat  and  death   127 

Eugenius  and  Arbogast  .......  128-130 


Table  of  Contents.  xi 


PAGE 

Battle  of  the  Frigidus   131 

Death  of  Theodosius      .       .       .       .       .       .       .  132 

His  character         ........  133 


LECTURE  V. 
Alaric. 

The  sons  of  Theodosius,  Arcadius  and  Honorius 

Their  ministers,  Rufinus  and  Stilicho 

Alaric  chosen  King  of  the  Visigoths 

Alaric  invades  Greece  ..... 

Stilicho  forbidden  to  defend  it  ... 
Murder  of  Rufinus  ...... 

Second  campaign  of  Stilicho  against  Alaric 
Alaric  as  Roman  governor  of  Illyricum  . 
Alarm's  first  invasion  of  Italy- 
Invasion  by  Radagaisus  ..... 

Revolt  of  Constantine  in  Britain 
Negotiations  between  Stilicho  and  Alaric 
Death  of  Arcadius  ..... 

Mutiny  at  Ticinum.    Stilicho  slain 

Alaric's  first  siege  of  Rome  .... 

Alaric's  second  siege  of  Rome 

Attalus  Emperor  ...... 

Alaric's  third  siege  and  capture  of  Rome 
Death  of  Alaric  


LECTURE  VI. 
Placidia  :  Attila. 

Placidia — 

Historical  perspective  .......  1 70 

Early  life  of  Placidia :  her  captivity     .       .       .       .  171 

Ataulfus,  successor  of  Alaric       .       .       .       .       .  172 

His  marriage  with  Placidia  .....  1 74 

Death  of  Ataulfus   175 

Second  marriage,  widowhood,  and  exile  of  Placidia     .  176 

Death  of  Honorius      .......  1 76 

Rise  and  fall  of  Joannes.    Valentinian  III,  Emperor   .  177 

Regency  of  Placidia     .   178 

Aetius        .........  179 


135-137 
137 
139 
139 

141-142 

143 
143 
I45-H7 
148-151 

152 
153 
155 
156-158 
159-161 
162 
162-164 
164-166 
16*7 


xii 


Table  of  Contents. 


PAGE 

Attila— 

Accession  of  Attila  :  his  character  and  appearance      .  180-182 

Extent  of  his  Empire   182-184 

His  Embassies  to  Constantinople        .       .       .       *  184 

The  vases  of  Sirmium   185 

Honoria's  ring     ........  185 

Description  by  Priscus  of  Attila's  palace      .       .       .  186 

„                 „          the  banquet  ....  187-190 

Deaths  of  Placidia  and  Theodosius  II  .       .       .       .  191 

Marcian  and  Pulcheria  reign   191 

Attila  prepares  for  war  with  the  West         .       .       .  192 

Alliance  between  the  Empire  and  the  Visigoths           .  192-193 

Attila's  invasion  of  Gaul      ......  193 

Siege  of  Orleans          .       .       .       .       .       .       .  x94 

Battle  of  Chalons  (so  called)   195-197 

Attila's  retreat     ........  197 

Attila  invades  Italy   198 

Capture  of  Aquileia     .               .       .       .       .       .  198 

The  founders  of  Venice       ......  199 

Attila  at  Milan    .       .       .       .       .       .       .       .  200 

Embassy  of  Pope  Leo         ......  201 

Return  and  death  of  Attila   202 

The  Hunnish  power  broken   203 

LECTURE  VII. 
Gaiseric. 

Early  history  of  the  Vandals   204 

The  Vandals  enter  Gaul  .......  205-207 

They  cross  the  Pyrenees  and  enter  Spain  .       .       .       .  207 

Death  of  Gunderic :  accession  of  Gaiseric       .       .       .  209 

Bonifacius  invites  the  Vandals  to  enter  Africa  .        .       .  209-211 

The  Vandals  transported  to  Africa         .       .       .       .  212 

Bonifacius  repents  and  returns  to  Ravenna      .       .       .  215 

Siege  of  Hippo       ........  216 

Capture  of  Carthage       .       .       .       .       .       .       .  217 

Appearance,  character,  and  career  of  Gaiseric  *       .       .  218-220 

Vandal  land-settlement    .......  220 

Law  of  succession  to  the  throne      .       .       .       .       .  221 

Persecution  of  the  Catholics   221-225 


Table  of  Contents. 


xiii 


PAGE 

Valentinian  murders  Aetius     ......  226 

Death  of  Valentinian  III.    Accession  of  Maximus  .       .  228 

Gaiseric's  Expedition  to  Rome.    Plunder  of  the  City      .  229-232 

Captivity  of  the  widow  and  daughters  of  Valentinian      .  232 

Further  fortunes  of  the  Theodosian  family      .       .       .  233 

Conclusion   234 


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THE  DYNASTY  OF  THEODOSIUS. 


LECTURE  I. 
The   Roman  Empire. 

In  Longfellow's  Golden  Legend   the  following 
question  is  asked  : — 

'  Say  to  me 
What  the  great  Voices  Four  may  be 
That  quite  across  the  world  do  flee 
And  are  not  heard  by  men  ? ' 

and  this  answer  given  : — 

'  The  Voice  of  the  Sun  in  heaven's  dome, 
The  Voice  of  the  murmuring  of  Rome, 
The  Voice  of  a  Soul  that  goeth  home, 
And  the  Angel  of  the  Rain.' 

'The  voice  of  the  murmuring  of  Rome.'  That 
was  indeed  a  mighty  voice ;  how  all-powerful,  how 
nearly  equivalent  to  the  voice  of  the  whole  civilised 
human  race,  is  more  vividly  impressed  upon  us  by 
every  year  of  deeper  study  of  the  history  of  the 
world  fifteen  centuries  ago. 

Let  us  try  by  a  very  rapid  summary  to  indicate  Extent  of 
the  meaning  which  the  words  '  Imperium  Roma-  ^Jpi™™ 
num '  conveyed  to  him  who  heard  them  in  the  days 
when  the  Temple  of  Jupiter  Capitolinus  was  still 
standing  and  still  thronged  with  earnest  worshippers. 

B 


2 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[I. 


North 
Britain. 


Midland 
and 

Southern 
Britain. 


Let  us  go  forth  from  this  city  which  clusters  on 
its  seven  hills  around  the  Tomb  of  St.  Cuthbert. 
Those  hills  are  untrodden  forest  or  undistinguished 
pasture-ground,  and  all  the  glory  of  architecture  and 
all  the  wealth  of  sacred  associations  which  will  one 
day  crown  them  are  unknown,  for  we  are  now  in  the 
second  century  after  Christ,  and  Durham  is  neither 
castra  nor  mansio  nor  mutatio  in  the  map  of  Roman 
Britain.  But  if  we  go  a  few  miles  up  the  Wear, 
near  to  that  place  in  'the  land  of  Oaks,'  where  the 
Bishop  of  Durham  will  one  day  build  his  castle,  we 
shall  find  there,  upon  a  high  promontory  of  table- 
land overlooking  the  stream,  the  spacious  camp  of 
Vinovia  with  its  baths  and  its  hypocausts,  doubtless 
also  with  its  temple  and  its  magazines.  Here  we 
strike  a  great  Roman  road.  Follow  that  road  north- 
wards over  the  hills,  and  you  will  come  to  the  camp 
of  Lanchester  on  the  Browney.  Another  stretch 
over  wild  moorlands,  and  we  reach  Ebchester,  in  the 
pleasant  valley  of  the  Derwent.  Another,  and  we 
strike  the  Tyne  at  Corstopitum  (Corbridge).  And  so 
on  by  more  camps  and  stations  than  I  need  weary 
you  with  the  names  of,  till  we  reach  the  great  camp, 
or  rather  series  of  camps,  which  surround  the  high 
altar-like  hill  of  Birrenswark  in  Dumfriesshire,  over- 
looking the  sandy  Solway.  Yet  still  the  Roman  road 
is  running  northwards,  till  at  last  it  reaches  the  Wall 
of  Antoninus,  somewhere  near  the  Frith  of  Clyde. 

Southwards  the  same  road  pursues  its  course,  un- 
compromising and  undeviating,  over  the  great  ridge 
of  hills  which  separates  you  from  the  Tees.  Across 


The  Roman  Empire. 


3 


the  Swale  at  Cataractonium  it  leads  us  to  Isurium, 
which  will  one  day  be  represented  by  the  pleasant 
old-fashioned  village  of  Boroughbridge,  and  where 
we  see  for  the  first  time  those  pictured  floors,  the 
tesselated  pavements  which  are  so  abundant  in 
Southern  Britain  and  in  Gaul.  Then  it  takes  us  to 
Eboracum,  the  great  Roman  city  of  the  North,  the 
home  of  the  Sixth  Legion,  the  place  where  the  aged 
Severus  will  lay  down  the  purple  at  the  bidding  of 
Death,  and  where  the  young  Constantine  will  as- 
sume it  at  the  bidding  of  the  soldiery.  Thence 
across  the  country  south-westwards,  over  those  hills 
and  dales  of  Yorkshire  and  Lancashire,  which  are 
now  among  the  poorest  and  most  solitary,  as  they 
will  one  day  be  among  the  richest  and  the  most  thickly 
populated  portions  of  the  island  of  the  Britons.  So 
we  reach  Deva,  or  Chester  on  the  Dee,  where  the 
Twentieth  Legion  have  built  their  stately  city,  with 
its  temples,  its  baths,  and  its  spacious  praetorium 
for  their  commanding  officer.  And  so  from  thence, 
through  Cheshire  and  Staffordshire,  and  on  by  a 
route  pretty  nearly  coinciding  with  that  which  will, 
after  many  centuries,  be  taken  by  the  North- Western 
Railway,  till  at  last  we  reach  that  city,  comparatively 
unimportant  in  the  official  map  of  Roman  Britain,  but 
which  the  concourse  of  merchants  is  even  now  mak- 
ing important  in  spite  of  prefects  and  procurators, 
'the  city  formerly  known  as  Londinium,  but  now 
named  Augusta.' 

In  our  own  day,  at  nearly  every  step  of  our  course 
along  this  great  highway,  which  our  ancestors  named 

B  2 


4 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[i. 


Existing  the  Watling  Street,  there  is  some  trace  of  the 
tRoman  Roman  legionary  and  his  sojourn  in  our  island. 
occupation.  Here  the  coins  of  some  military  treasure  chest 
buried  in  haste  and  never  reclaimed ;  there  the 
shells  of  the  oysters  or  the  bones  of  the  beef  which 
the  soldiers  consumed  ;  here  a  dedication  to  some 
native  god  bearing  an  uncouth  name,  with  whom 
they  thought  it  safer  to  be  on  friendly  terms ;  there 
the  pathetic  epitaph  of  a  departed  wife  'who  lived 
with  her  husband  xxx  years,  "sine  ulla  macula"' 
with  no  spot  upon  her  goodness ;  here  the  walls  of  a 
camp  turned  by  centuries  into  mere  grassy  mounds, 
but  still  by  their  rectangular  shape  rounded  at  the 
corners,  showing  the  handiwork  of  the  Roman  sur- 
veyor ;  there  an  inscription  recording  the  rebuilding 
of  a  bath  or  a  granary,  '  vetustate  conlapsum '  (which 
had  fallen  in  through  age\  and  reminding  us  how 
old  and  venerable  the  buildings  erected  by  the  first 
conquerors  of  Britain  must  have  appeared  long  before 
the  last  Roman  soldier,  standing  upon  the  stern  of 
the  departing  vessel,  waved  his  sad  *  Vale  Britannia ' 
to  our  island. 


Boundaries  All  these  vestiges  of  the  great  world-Empire,  when 
°Roman  one  examines  them  patiently  day  after  day,  as  it  has 
World.  often  been  my  privilege  to  do  in  travelling  along 
one  of  the  great  Roman  roads  in  our  own  country 
or  abroad,  produce  an  effect  upon  the  mind  incom- 
parably stronger  and  deeper  than  results  from  simply 
reading  the  story  of  the  conquest  of  a  province  in 
the  pages  of  Caesar  or  Tacitus.    And  now  multiply 


l]  The  Roman  Empire.  5 

this  picture  at  least  thirty-fold  in  order  to  make  it 
justly  represent  the  whole  extent  of  the  Empire. 
Cross  the  sea  from  '  Londinium,  now  Augusta/  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Rhine.  Travel  for  days  up  that  stately 
river  and  see  the  legionaries  swarming  upon  its 
western,  and  not  unknown  upon  its  eastern  bank. 
Trace  the  300  miles  of  stake-covered  rampart 
which  join  the  Middle  Rhine  to  the  Middle  Danube, 
and  along  every  mile  of  which  a  Roman  soldier  is 
tramping.  Descend  the  Danube  from  Ratisbon  to 
the  Euxine  and  see  every  foot  of  its  right  bank  held 
by  Rome,  who  for  more  than  a  century  holds  a 
province  on  the  left  bank  also  (the  province  of  Dacia), 
and  stations  her  legionaries  on  the  crests  of  the  Car- 
pathian Mountains.  Take  ship  and  sail  over  the 
foggy  Euxine,  and  there,  in  its  extreme  south-eastern 
corner,  near  where  Jason  and  his  companions  sought 
the  Golden  Fleece,  recognise  once  more  the  Roman 
boundary.  Follow  that  boundary  over  the  moun- 
tains of  Armenia  to  the  upper  waters  of  the  Tigris. 
Cross  'the  great  river,  the  River  Euphrates/  near 
the  place  where  Eliezer  waited  for  Rebekah  by  the 
well;  and  then  encompassing  Damascus  and  the  mys- 
terious cities  of  Bashan,  let  the  border  come  down 
past  the  Dead  Sea,  past  Mount  Pisgah  and  Mount 
Sinai,  and  so  overleaping  the  Red  Sea,  let  it  reach 
the  valley  of  the  Nile.  Here  the  frontier  towards  the 
barbarism  of  Ethiopia  is  the  same  that  the  modern 
protectors  of  Eg}^pt  have  drawn  close  to  the  city  of 
Syene  (now  Assouan) ;  leaving  800  miles  of  the  rich 
Nile  valley  as  the  granary  of  Rome.    All  along  the 


6 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[I. 


northern  coast  of  Africa,  Cyrene,  Tripolis,  Carthage, 
Numidia,  Mauretania,  whatever  there  is  of  civilised, 
stable,  wealth-producing  life  (and  it  is  a  broad  enough 
belt  in  some  places)  is  all  Roman  by  obedience,  and 
much  of  it  Latin  by  speech.  At  last  the  boundary 
goes  out  at  the  Atlantic  Ocean  where  Hercules  once 
relieved  Atlas  of  his  load.  Men  gazing  forth  upon  the 
waste  of  waters,  and  half  discovering,  half  dreaming, 
concerning  the  Fortunate  Isles  beyond,  are  con- 
strained at  length  to  admit  the  fact  that  the  great 
Empire  has  found  its  limit,  and  that  if  there  be  other 
worlds  to  the  West  they  are  worlds  beyond  the 
world  of  Rome. 
The  Orbis  It  was  an  immense  extent  of  territory  which  the 
nearfyToin-  R°man  g°d  Terminus  thus  marked  out,  and  (as  has 
cided  with  been  often  pointed  out,  but  is  a  fact  of  the  greatest 

the  Orbis     .  F .  '     ,  °    ,  „ 

Terrarum.  importance)  it  more  nearly  embraced  the  whole  of 
the  then  known  and  civilised  world  than  any  Empire 
that  has  since  been  seen.  True,  the  mysterious 
river  of  Asiatic  civilisation,  as  represented  by  China 
and  India,  flowed  on,  not  blending  its  waters  with 
those  which  the  Tiber  ruled.  But  these  countries 
were  practically  altogether  beyond  the  horizon  of 
the  Empire.  During  the  first  three  centuries  of  our 
era  there  was  only  one  civilised  power  of  which 
Rome  was  conscious  as  a  possible  rival  to  herself, 
and  that  was  the  power  of  Persia.  Her  sovereign, 
whether  he  were  known  as  Parthian  or  Persian, 
as  Arsacid  or  Sassanid,  took  to  himself  proud 
titles,  calling  himself  '  King  of  Kings/  and  so  forth, 
and  often  by  his  devastating  raids  inflicted  sore 


I.] 


The  Roman  Empire. 


7 


disaster  on  the  Eastern  provinces  of  Rome  ;  but  the 
Empire  was  certainly  far  the  stronger  power,  and 
many  of  the  abler  Emperors  could  probably,  if  the}' 
had  deemed  it  wise  to  make  the  attempt,  have  ac- 
complished what  Julian  so  narrowly  missed  and 
what  Heraclius  triumphantly  performed,  the  over- 
throw of  the  Persian  monarchy. 

This  vast  territory  had  been  acquired   by  the  Govern- 
municipality  of  an  Italian  city  under  a  government  n™nt  °f thc 
which  was  in  some  respects  the  best  adapted  for  state. 
gaining  and  for  consolidating  dominion  that  the 
world  has  ever  seen.    S.  P.  Q.  R. :  these  four  letters  Senatus 
formed  the  talisman  which  floated  on  the  victorious  p°Pul™ 

Que  Ro- 

standards  of  Rome,  whether  they  crowned  the  misty  manus. 
heights  of  the  Cheviots  or  were  mirrored  in  the 
waters  of  the  Orontes.    The  Senate  and  the  People 
of  Rome  :  we  must  pause  for  a  few  moments  on  these 
words  to  consider  what  they  implied. 

(i)  The  Senate  of  Rome,  in  its  best  days  reminding  The  Roman 
the  beholder  of  an  assembly  of  Kings,  debating  the  ^™£'the 
affairs  of  the  Republic  with  a  gravity,  an  earnestness  Republic. 
and  a  conciseness  very  unlike  the  showy  rhetoric  of 
a  Greek  Ecclesia  or  the  vapid  verbiage  of  a  modern 
House  of  Commons  or  House  of  Representatives  : 
this  was  the  body  which  gave  coherence  and  unity  to 
the  policy  of  the  great  Latin  city,  which  prevented  it 
from  being  swayed  to  and  fro  by  such  gusts  of 
passion  or  misplaced  sentiment  as  ruined  the  Empire 
of  Athens  ;  which  caused  it  to  pursue,  century  after 
century,  the  same  undeviating  course,  and  to  act 


8 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[I. 


upon  the  same  maxims  of  statesmanship — hard 
maxims  often,  and  inspired  by  a  terrible  egotism,  but 
successful.  It  was  the  Senate  which  enabled  the 
Roman  State  to  feel  the  proud  confidence  that  was 
expressed  with  less  justice  by  that  patient  toiler, 
Philip  of  Spain,  '  Time  and  I  against  any  one  else  in 
the  world/ 

Not  a  mere  One  source  of  the  Senate's  strength  was  derived 
hereditary  from       fact  that  it  was  never  in  theory  and  seldom 

aristocracy.  #  J 

in  practice  a  mere  hereditary  aristocracy.  Election  to 
some  one  of  the  great  offices  of  the  State  into  which 
the  kingly  power  had  been  divided,  Consulship, 
Praetorship,  Quaestorship,  was  the  door  by  which 
entrance  was  gained  into  the  '  assembly  of  Kings ' — 
and  this  election  in  the  better  days  of  the  Republic 
implied  a  certain  amount  of  popular  respect  if  not 
of  popular  favour — but  once  admitted,  the  Senator 
had  his  seat  practically  for  life,  and  needed  not  to 
tremble  at  every  changing  wind  of  popular  opinion, 
lest  the  withdrawal  of  the  favour  of  his  constituents 
should  doom  him  to  political  annihilation.  The 
chasm  which  once  separated  the  Patrician  from  the 
Plebeian,  and  which  made  it  impossible  for  the  latter 
to  enter  the  Senate,  had  been  filled  up  long  before 
Rome  began  to  play  her  great  part  among  the 
nations  of  the  earth :  but  it  is  true  that  a  new 
aristocracy  of  consular  families,  partly  Patrician  and 
partly  Plebeian,  had  arisen  on  the  ruins  of  the  old. 
A  Terentius  Varro,  a  Marius,  a  Cicero  could  by  great 
energy,  by  military  successes,  or  by  surpassing 
eloquence,  break  through  into  the  charmed  circle, 


I.] 


The  Roman  Empire. 


9 


but  the  outcry  that  was  raised  at  the  presumption  of 
such  a  novus  homo  showed  that  the  event  was  a  rare 
one. 

One  institution,  however,  which  modern  aristo-  The  Cen- 
cracies  would  do  well  to  copy,  tended  to  save  the  sorshiP- 
Senate  from  the  worst  perils  of  a  hereditary  oligarchy. 
To  be  ruled  by  a  proud  nobility  which  respects  itself 
is  perhaps  not  pleasant,  but  it  is  endurable.  But  to 
be  ruled  by  'hereditary  legislators'  who  do  not 
observe  the  ordinary  decencies  of  life  is  an  ignominy 
too  galling  to  be  borne.  The  power  of  the  Censor  to 
degrade  from  his  Senatorial  office  any  man  who 
offended  against  the  strict  old-fashioned  code  of 
Roman  morality,  a  power  which  in  the  best  days 
of  the  Republic  was  wielded  with  merciless  severity 
and  without  respect  of  persons,  must  have  largely 
contributed  to  that  moral  ascendency  of  the  Senate 
which  made  it  for  four  centuries  as  supreme  in 
Roman  politics  as  the  House  of  Commons  has 
been  for  the  last  two  centuries  in  the  politics  of 
Britain. 

(2)  The  People  of  Rome,  the  Quirites,  assembled  The  People 
by  their  centuries  or  their  tribes,  under  an  Italian  °f Romc- 
sky,  in  the  Campus  Martius  or  the  Forum — 
these  also  had  their  allotted  share  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  greatness  of  Rome  :  these  formed 
the  strong  steadily  beating  heart,  without  which 
all  the  accumulated  wisdom  of  the  Senate,  the 
brain  of  the  State,  would  have  been  of  no  avail. 
Questions  of  peace  and  war,  and  questions  of  poli- 
tical reform,  were  brought  before  them,  generally,  it 


IO 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[i. 


is  true,  on  the  motion  of  the  Senate,  but  so  as 
to  cast  the  final  responsibility  on  the  people  ;  and 
during  the  greater  part  of  the  lifetime  of  the  Re- 
public those  solemn  trials  of  political  offenders 
which  correspond  most  nearly  to  our  own  im- 
peachments took  place  at  the  bar  of  the  popular 
assembly. 

The  Tri-  To  guard  these  rights  and  to  secure  the  meanest 
citizen  of  Rome  from  oppression  on  the  part  of  some 
haughty  aristocrat,  the  Tribunes  of  the  Common- 
alty were  called  into  being,  that  unique  class  of 
magistrates  whose  power  of  '  intercession '  could 
bring  the  whole  machinery  of  the  State  to  a  dead- 
lock, and  upon  whose  '  sacro-sanct '  persons  the 
proudest  Consul,  fresh  from  victory  over  the  enemies 
of  Rome,  might  not  lay  hands  without  incurring  the 
penalty  of  outlawry.  The  office  which  the  Member 
of  Parliament  has  hitherto  discharged  when  he 
brings  the  grievance  of  a  constituent  before  the 
House  of  Commons  ;  the  office  of  redresser  of  all 
wrongs  and  browbeater  of  all  magistrates,  which  the 
Public  Press  has  of  later  time  arrogated  to  itself — 
these  offices  were  for  centuries  discharged  by  the 
Tribunes  of  the  Commonalty.  Upon  the  whole 
we  may  believe  that  the  Tribunician  power  was 
a  useful  counterpoise  to  the  immense  authority 
vested  in  Consuls  and  Praetors  :  but  it  was  always 
a  power  which  in  the  hands  of  a  dishonest  dema- 
gogue might  be  abused  for  the  purpose  of  obstruc- 
tion. It  was  always  useful  only  as  a  brake  is  useful 
to  the  driver  of  a  railway  train  ;  and  in  the  latter 


The  Roman  Empire. 


1 1 


days  of  the  Republic  it  was  a  brake  suddenly  and 
clumsily  applied,  by  which  the  Engine  of  the  State 
was  being  continually  thrown  off  the  line. 

But,  such  as  they  were,  these  two  great  deposi-  Political 
taries  of  power,  the  Senate  and  the  People,  wrought  dechne- 
together  in  reasonable  harmony,  and  upon  the 
whole  for  the  good  of  Rome  and  the  fast  widening 
Roman  world,  during  the  two  centuries  which  inter-  B.C.  367- 
vened  between  the  admission  of  Plebeians  to  the  1461 
Consulate  and  the  Third  Punic  War.  With  the 
fall  of  Rome's  old  rival,  Carthage,  a  rapid  change 
for  the  worse  manifested  itself  in  the  Roman  char- 
acter. Corruption  entered  the  Senate  and  brutal 
violence  disgraced  the  Assembly  of  the  People. 
The  young  Roman  politician  half  ruined  himself 
over  the  shows  of  gladiators  and  wild  beasts  that 
were  to  purchase  from  the  commonalty  his  election 
to  the  successive  offices  which  were  the  steps  in  the 
ladder  of  his  promotion.  The  mob  cheered  and 
laughed,  but  the  provinces  groaned,  for  out  of  their 
plundered  cities  and  beggared  agriculture  the  Pro- 
praetor or  Proconsul  reckoned  to  recoup  himself 
for  the  heavy  entrance-fees  which  he  had  paid  to 
gain  admission  to  the  Roman  Senate.  These 
abuses  became  at  length  too  glaring  for  even  the 
seared  consciences  of  Roman  politicians  to  endure. 
Laws  against  official  extortion,  ( de  repetundis  peca- 
niis*  were  passed  by  the  people — a  doubtful  boon  to 
the  provincials,  for  now  the  governor  robbed  them, 
not  for  himself  only,  but  for  the  rivals  and  the 
demagogues  whose  silence  he  had  to  purchase  by 


12 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[I. 


bribes.  In  the  train  of  the  governor  went  the 
usurer,  lending  money  at  ruinous  rates  to  the 
provincial  to  enable  him  to  pay  the  clamorous  tax- 
gatherer.  Even  Brutus,  that  Puritan  among  Roman 
statesmen,  sought  to  compel  the  inhabitants  of  Sala- 
mis  to  pay  him  compound  interest  at  the  rate  of 
48  per  cent,  per  annum.  Under  these  accumulated 
oppressions  the  fair  countries  round  the  Mediter- 
ranean were  fast  sinking  into  misery  and  despair, 
the  very  life-blood  being  drained  out  of  them  by 
the  insatiable  oligarchs  of  Rome.  And  during  the 
greater  part  of  this  time,  while  the  Senators  were 
treating  the  civilised  world  as  their  own  private  farm, 
and  farming  it  like  a  tenant  who  is  under  notice  to 
quit  and  will  get  all  he  can.  out  of  the  soil,  the  so- 
called  People  of  Rome  were  every  year  sinking 
lower  and  lower  into  degradation,  becoming  a  mere 
mob  of  freedmen  and  foreigners,  the  collected 
sewage  of  the  world.  The  Constitution — notwith- 
standing a  temporary  reaction  under  Sulla — was 
becoming  more  and  more  democratic,  as  the  people 
were  becoming  more  utterly  unworthy  to  be  trusted 
with  power.  Armed  bands  of  hired  bravoes  fought 
with  one  another  in  the  streets  of  Rome,  and  on 
the  day  of  a  hotly-disputed  election  or  the  passing 
of  an  unpopular  law,  the  statues  in  the  Forum  were 
splashed  with  the  blood  of  the  slain. 
Shelley  on  I  know  no  words  which  more  vividly  bring  before 
the  decay  of  ouv  mincjs  the  contrast  between  the  Rome  of  Cin- 

Rofnati 

freedom,     cinnatus  and  the  Rome  of  Clodius  than  this  verse 
from  Shelley's  '  Ode  to  Liberty  ' : — 


i.]  The  Roman  Empire.  13 


'  Then  Rome  was,  and  from  thy  deep  bosom,  fairest 
Like  a  wolf-cub,  from  some  Cadmean  Maenad 

She  drew  the  milk  of  greatness,  though  thy  dearest 1 
From  that  Elysian  food  was  yet  un weaned. 

And  many  a  deed  of  terrible  uprightness 
By  thy  sweet  love  was  sanctified, 

And  in  thy  smile  and  by  thy  side 
Saintly  Camillus  lived  and  firm  Atilius2  died. 
But  when  blood  stained  thy  robe  of  vestal  whiteness, 

And  gold  profaned  thy  Capitolian  throne, 
Thou  didst  desert  with  spirit-winged  lightness 

The  Senate  of  the  oppressors :  they  sank  prone 
Slaves  of  one  tyrant :  Palatinus  sighed 

Faint  echoes  of  Ionian  song.    That  tone 

Thou  didst  delay  to  hear,  lamenting  to  disown.' 

'Slaves  of  one  tyrant/  That  was  the  doom,  the 
righteous  doom  of  the  Roman  Senate  and  People. 
Corruption  above  and  anarchy  below  had  slain  that 
Public  Virtue  without  which  a  Republic  cannot  live  : 
and  now  the  only  hope  of  the  world  lay  in  the  up- 
rising of  some  one  man  who  should  save  Rome  from 
herself,  and  rescue  from  her  Senate  and  People  the 
provinces  which  they  had  won  but  could  no  longer 
govern. 

This  necessary  work  was  performed  by  the  man  Caesar. 
who  stands  head  and  shoulders  above  all  other 
statesmen,  as  Isaiah  above  all  other  Prophets,  as 
Shakespeare  above  all  other  Dramatists, — the  man 
whose  name  still  means  Emperor  to  more  than  a 
hundred  millions  of  mankind,  Gaius  Julius  Caesar. 
It  may  be  truly  said  that  the  further  we  get  away 
from  Caesar  the  Dictator,  the  greater  his  work  ap- 
pears. Superficial  students  of  history  used  to  think 
1  Greece.  2  Regulus. 


14 


Dynasty  of  Thcodosius. 


[1. 


of  it  as  only  lasting  for  five  centuries  (yet  five  cen- 
turies, the  interval  of  time  that  separates  us  from 
Chaucer  and  Wycliffe,  is  not  a  contemptible  interval 
in  a  nation's  life) :  but  the  more  scientific  school  of 
modern  historians  rightly  claim  that  the  work  of 
Julius  Caesar,  the  organisation  of  Imperium  Roma- 
numy  outlived  not  only  the  fall  of  Rome,  but  the  fall 
of  Constantinople  also,  and  was  only  destroyed  by 
'the  bastard  Caesar,'  Napoleon,  in  1806,  if  indeed  it 
be  not,  in  a  sense,  living  still. 
Theory  of  As  the  various  offices  of  the  Republic  had  been 
tJpatfrmCl~  f°rmed  chiefly  out  of  the  power  of  the  ancient  kings, 
it  might  have  seemed  the  obvious  course  to  re- 
combine  them  into  one,  and  crown  Caesar  king. 
Warned  by  the  murmurs  of  the  crowd  on  the  day 
of  the  Lupercalia,  but  also  doubtless  following  his 
own  instinct  as  a  statesman,  Julius — and  his  nephew 
Augustus  after  him — chose  a  wiser  course.  The 
name  of  Republic  should  still  remain:  S.P.Q.R. 
should  still  be  inscribed  on  the  banners  of  the 
legions,  but  the  powers  of  the  Republic  should  all 
be  grasped  in  a  single  hand.  There  had  been  Dic- 
tators created  for  special  emergencies :  Julius  would 
be  a  life-long  Dictator.  Successful  generals  had  been 
saluted  Imperator  by  their  soldiers  on  the  field  of 
battle :  Julius  would  be  emphatically  the  Imperator. 
Grave  and  reverend  men,  the  fathers  of  the  Senate, 
had  been  hailed  with  the  title  Princeps :  Augustus 
would  now  in  middle  life  be  greeted  as  Princeps. 
Above  all,  the  Tribunes  of  the  Commonalty  had 
possessed  enormous  powers  for  the  prevention  of 


I.] 


The  Roman  Empire. 


i5 


legislation  of  which  they  disapproved,  and  their 
persons  had  been  invested  with  especial  sanctity. 
Augustus  would  now  gather  into  himself  all  the 
obstructive  powers  of  the  whole  College  of  Tribunes, 
and  his  person  should  be  '  sacro-sanct '  as  theirs  had 
been.  Special  defenders  of  the  Commonalty  were 
now  no  longer  needed.  The  new  Imperator  claimed, 
and  not  altogether  without  reason,  that  he  was  de- 
fender of  the  people,  and  therefore  each  year  by  a 
fresh  and  solemn  act  he  was  'invested  with  the 
Tribunician  power.' 

Our  own  Constitutional  monarchy  is  often  called  A  Monar- 
1  a  Republic  veiled  under  monarchical  forms/    The  c^y  n^er 

r  Republican 

Empire  of  the  Caesars  was  just  the  reverse:  informs. 
absolute   monarchy  veiled  under  the  forms  of  a 
Republic.     The  analogy  may  be  carried  a  little 
further.     Just  as  every  really  great  and  patriotic 
Prime  Minister,  under  a  Constitutional  monarchy  Deference 
like  ours,  veils  somewhat  of  the  power  which  in  °^pef°0°rds 
fact  is  his  under  the  forms  of  deference  to  the  to  the 
throne,  and  does  this  not  in  servile  adoration  for  SenaU- 
rank,  but  because  he  knows  that  in  the  institution  of 
Monarchy  there  is  a  fund  of  latent  power  which  it 
were  unwise  to  squander,  and  which  may  one  day 
be  sorely  needed  for  the  defence  of  the  life  of  the 
nation  against  enemies  from  without  or  from  within, 
even  so  the  greatest  and  best  of  the  Roman  Emperors, 
while  holding  all  power  in  their  hands,  used  that 
power  as  much  as  possible  in  harmony  with  the 
Senate  and  in  conformity  with  the  Senate's  advice ; 
and  thus,  while  preserving  the  prestige  of  an  ancient 


1 6  Dynasty  of  Theodosius.  [i. 

and  venerable  assembly,  also  retained  in  the  State  a 
force  which  might  operate  as  a  counterpoise,  though 
a  feeble  one,  should  the  vast  powers  of  the  Emperor 
pass  into  the  keeping  of  a  foolish  or  wicked  suc- 
cessor. But  while  the  good  and  patriotic  Emperors 
The  bad  — Augustus,  Trajan,  Marcus  Aurelius,  Claudius 
delighted  Gothicus,  Probus — delighted  to  magnify  the  moral 
in  degrad-  authority  of  the  Senate,  the  weak  and  dissolute 
in*  1 '  Emperors,  maddened  by  the  possession  of  absolute 
power,  delighted  to  trample  upon  and  insult  it. 
Caligula  forced  Senators  of  the  highest  rank  to 
walk  for  miles  before  his  chariot,  or  to  wait  upon 
him  at  table,  each  clad  in  the  linen  girdle  of  a  slave. 
Nero  wrung  from  the  loathing  Senate  a  formal  ap- 
probation of  the  murder  of  his  mother,  and  insisted 
on  400  of  its  members  performing  as  gladiators  in 
the  Amphitheatre.  And  Domitian,  according  to  the 
well-known  story  in  the  pages  of  Juvenal,  summoned 
the  trembling  Conscript  Fathers  in  the  dead  of 
night  to  deliberate  on  the  best  manner  of  cooking 
an  enormous  turbot. 

The  Pro-       t^j-  though  the  Senators  groaned  under  the  in- 

vinces  were 

the  gainers  suits  and  the  cruelty  of  the  bad  Emperors  (of  whom 
by  the  jn  fae  firsf-  century  of  the  Empire  there  was  un- 
system.  doubtedly  a  terrible  preponderance  over  the  good 
ones)  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  for  the  Empire  at 
large  the  change  to  the  Imperial  system  was  an 
enormous  benefit.  The  populace  of  Rome  had 
their  rations  and  their  gladiatorial  exhibitions  (pa- 
rtem et  circenses)  regularly,  and  what  was  more  im- 
portant, the  police  and  the  water  supply  of  the 


L] 


The  Roman  Empire. 


i7 


great  City  were  attended  to  as  they  had  never  been 
before.  The  provinces  were  no  longer  exposed 
to  the  unchecked  cupidity  of  some  dissolute  aris- 
tocrat, eager  to  suck  them  dry  during  his  short 
term  of  office  and  then  to  hurry  back  to  play  the 
great  game  of  politics  in  Rome.  Unjust  governors, 
men  like  Pontius  Pilate  and  Felix,  undoubtedly 
still  bore  sway ;  but  at  least  they  had  as  a  rule  a 
longer  term  of  office,  and  less  need  therefore  to 
drain  the  province  all  at  once.  And  the  thought  of 
the  terrible  Caesar  at  Rome,  who,  however  cruel 
and  rapacious  himself,  was  generally  quick  to 
punish  cruelty  and  rapacity  in  others,  the  dread 
of  hearing,  after  a  manifestly  unjust  sentence,  the 
fateful  words  pronounced,  '  Provoco  ad  Caesarem1/ 
kept  many  a  provincial  governor,  who  may  have 
been  at  heart  no  better  than  Verres  or  Gabinius, 
from  shearing  the  helpless  sheep  before  him  as 
closely  as  they  would  have  been  shorn  in  the  later 
days  of  the  Republic.  It  is  one  of  the  common- 
places of  history  that  even  Nero  himself  was  hated 
only  in  Rome,  and  that  after  his  death  the  story 
that  he  still  lived  and  would  one  day  return  and 
resume  the  purple,  was  told  and  lovingly  cherished 
in  many  of  the  provinces. 

The  history  of  the  Empire  naturally  groups  itself  Chief 
into  periods,  each  of  about  a  century  in  duration.  t>erwds,  °f 

J  Imperial 

The  Julian  dynasty,  from  the  battle  of  Actium  (b.  c.  history. 
31)  to  the  death  of  Nero  (a.  d.  68),  fills  up  ninety-  L  The 

ii«  ,   ,  ,  Julian  Dy 

nine  years.    We  pass  lightly  over  the  twenty-seven  nasty,  99 
1  <  I  appeal  unto  Caesar.'  ycars- 
C 


i8 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


{B.C.  31-  years  of  the  Flavian  dynasty  (69-96),  which  is  in 
some  resPects  n^e  a  C0Py  °f  tne  Julian,  Vespasian 
vian  Dy-  being  a  somewhat  commonplace  Augustus  and 
nasty,  27  Domitian  a  vulgar  Nero,  and  we  come  to  the  great 
"(69-96 )  an<^  gl°ri°us  age  °f  the  Antonines  \  For  eighty- 
ZZ.  7%*  four  years  (a.  d.  96-180)  a  series  of  sovereigns,  the 
Antomnes y  bes^  the  wisest  and  the  most  statesmanlike  that  the 

84  years. 

(96-180.)  world  has  ever  seen — Nerva,  Trajan,  Hadrian, 
Antoninus,  Marcus — sat  upon  the  throne  of  the 
world.  What  has  been  already  said  as  to  the 
happiness  of  the  provinces  under  the  Julian 
dynasty  might  be  said  without  any  qualification, 
as  far  as  the  rulers  could  bring  happiness,  of  the 
century  of  Antonine  rule.  But  according  to  the 
trite  quotation — 

•  How  small,  of  all  that  human  hearts  endure, 
That  part  which  laws  or  kings  can  cause  or  cure.' 

The  course  of  nature  seems  as  if  it  had  been  out 
of  joint  during  that  otherwise  happy  century.  De- 
structive earthquakes,  wide-wandering  pestilences 
and  grievous  famines  marked  its  course ;  and  at 
the  close  of  it  came  that  terrible  irruption  of  barba- 
rians from  the  lands  of  the  Middle  Danube  which 
is  known  as  the  Marcomannic  War,  and  which 
very  nearly  brought  about  the  fall  of  the  Roman 
Empire  two  centuries  too  soon. 
III.  The  The  stately  and  philosophic  virtue  of  the  An- 
Afe  tonine  Emperors  led   to  a  terrible  anti-climax — 

Anarchy,  r 

\oi  years,  the  mad  sensuality  and  cruelty  of  the  bull-necked 
(180-285.) 

1  Strictly  speaking  the  Ulpii,  Aelii,  Antonini,  and  Annii.  But 
Antoninus  is  the  best  central  name  for  the  dynasty. 


I.] 


The  Roman  Empire. 


T9 


Commodus.  And  now  began  that  terrible  third 
century,  in  which  the  great  World-Empire  seemed 
perpetually  as  if  it  were  on  the  point  of  going  to 
pieces,  through  its  own  weakness  and  corruption, 
before  the  barbarians  were  ready  even  to  gather 
up  its  fragments.  It  had  been  discovered  '  that  an 
emperor  could  be  made  elsewhere  than  in  Rome,' 
and  in  every  province,  almost  in  every  legionary 
camp,  there  was  an  upstart  General  eager  to  avail 
himself  of  this  discovery,  eager  to  wrap  himself 
in  the  purple  and  to  lay  hold  of  what  the  Greek 
historians  call  h  ra>v  oXav  apxh,  1  the  rule  of  the 
universe.'  The  strongest  memory  can  hardly  re- 
tain the  names  of  all  the  obscure  adventurers 
who  thus  blossomed  into  a  little  temporary  noto- 
riety, and  who  were  murdered  by  a  rival  or  fell 
on  the  field  of  battle  before  their  purple  had  lost 
the  lustre  of  its  newness.  Province  thus  fighting 
against  province  and  civil  war  being  the  normal 
condition  of  the  Empire,  the  misery  and  poverty 
which  everywhere  prevailed  can  hardly  be  imagined, 
and  are  but  scantily  pourtrayed  for  us  by  the 
wretched  historians  of  the  time.  Two  things,  how- 
ever, always  occur  to  my  mind  as  typical  of  this 
woeful  age — its  coinage  and  its  camps.  Take  a  Debased 
coin  of  one  of  the  earlier  Emperors,  say  a  bronze  CoinaSe- 
sestertius  of  Domitian,  which  lies  before  me  while 
I  write :  see  the  clear  bold  relief  of  the  laurel- 
crowned  head,  the  sharp,  well-cut  letters  of  the 
inscription,  and  then  compare  it  with  a  (so-called) 
silver  denarius  of  Valerian  or  Gallienus — a  thin 


C  2 


20 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[I. 


bit  of  copper  with  a  wash  of  silver  or  pewter  over 
it,  and  upon  it  the  barbarous  effigy  of  a  head  wearing 
a  radiated  crown  and  surrounded  by  an  almost  ille- 
gible inscription.  From  a  mere  glance  at  the  coins 
you  feel  at  once  that  the  owner  of  a  sestertius  (whose 
nominal  value  was  twopence-halfpenny)  under  Domi- 
tian  was  a  richer  man  than  the  owner  of  a  denarius 
(the  equivalent  of  four  sestertii)  under  Gallienus. 
Degenerate  And  the  camps :  go  to  Housesteads  or  Chesters 
fure*teC~  and  see  tne  splendid  blocks  of  masonry  which 
belong  to  the  age  of  the  Antonines ;  see  the 
masonry  of  a  very  different  and  far  inferior  kind, 
small  and  mean  and  easily  overthrown,  which 
marks  the  age  of  Constantine,  after  the  close  of 
the  third  century.  But  in  between  these  two 
periods  of  original  building  and  late  repair  you 
may  often  find  a  mass  of  confused  debris,  some- 
times with  the  marks  of  fire  upon  them.  That 
shapeless  mound  tells  the  story  of  the  third  cen- 
tury. While  every  little  Tribune  or  Centurion  was 
coquetting  with  the  soldiers  under  his  command, 
relaxing  discipline  and  permitting  plunder,  in  the 
hope  that  they  might  some  morning  rush  to  the 
Praetorium,  put  on  him  the  purple  robe  and  hail 
him  as  Imperator,  meantime  the  Pax  Romana 
was  becoming  a  bitter  bye-word  over  all  the  Em- 
pire, and  in  our  own  country  the  savage  Cale- 
donians were  breaking  down  the  barrier  of  Hadrian, 
setting  fire  to  Cilurnum  and  Borcovicus,  swarming 
across  the  Tyne  and  Tees,  and  carrying  fire  and 
sword  far  into  the  heart  of  Britain. 


I.] 


The  Roman  Empire. 


21 


The  deliverer  of  the  world  from  this  tempest  of  IV.  The 
anarchy  and  disruption,  the  true  Second  Founder  Age  °fRe~ 

J  r  storatzon, 

of  the  Empire  was  the  son  of  a  Dalmatian  slave,  years, 

Diocletian.  As  his  reign  began  a.d.  285,  as  the  work  (285-378-) 

of  reorganisation  which  was  commenced  by  him  was 

continued   by  Constantine  (306-337),  and  as  the 

political  system  thus  inaugurated  lasted  unimpaired 

till  378,  the  date  of  the  battle  of  Hadrianople,  we 

may  call  this  the  fourth  century  of  the  Empire,  the 

period  of  Restoration. 

The  great  objects  aimed  at  and  accomplished  by  Objects  of 

Diocletian  were  the  increase  of  the  majesty  of  the  {/l.e  Dwcle~ 

J     J  tiamc  re- 

Imperial  office,  the  equable  diffusion  of  defensive  form. 

power  through  all  parts  of  the  Empire,  the  welding 
of  a  strong  chain  of  rights  and  responsibilities  which 
should  vibrate  from  the  Emperor  on  his  throne  to 
the  lowest  official  in  the  most  distant  province. 

(1)  The  increased  majesty  of  the  Emperor's  office.  Increased 
All  pretence  of  his  being  only  the  first  citizen  in  ^y^thT™ 
Republic,  only  the  most  eminent  member  of  the  imperial 
Senate,  and  so  on,  was  now  done  away  with.    The  dignity. 
Emperor  now  wore  on  his  head  a  pearl-bordered 
diadem,  on  his  feet  sandals  studded  with  gems ;  he 
was  surrounded  by  a  splendid  retinue,  and  the  peti- 
tioner who  approached  him — though  he  were  a  mem- 
ber of  one  of  the  proudest  families  in  the  Roman 
Senate — had  to  prostrate  himself  on  the  ground  and 
adore  the  Imperial  Majesty.    Thus  at  length  the 
Roman  Imperator  stood  fully  revealed,  a  monarch 
as  haughty  and  as  absolute  as  Darius  or  Sapor.  In 
all  this,  censorious  critics  traced  the  overweening 


22 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[i. 


pride  of  the  Dalmatian  slave's  son  exalted  to  the 
pinnacle  of  earthly  greatness  :  yet  it  is  probable 
that  policy  had  as  much  share  as  pride  in  the  self- 
exaltation  of  Diocletian.  During  the  long  troubles 
of  the  third  century,  when  every  legion  was  making 
and  unmaking  Emperors,  the  highest  office  in  the 
State  had  lost  all  dignity  and  all  prestige  :  and  if  it 
was  really  to  recover  itself  and  become,  as  Diocletian 
would  have  it,  the  true  centre  of  gravity  of  the  State, 
it  was  necessary  that  it  should  once  again  seem 
awful  and  majestic.  The  same  statesmanlike  spirit 
which  dictated  to  Augustus  the  suppression  of  the 
visible  signs  of  regal  magnificence,  suggested  to  Dio- 
cletian their  multiplication  and  embellishment. 
Division  of  (2)  It  had  become  manifest  to  a  statesman's  eye 
labour.  tnat  tne  vagt  Roman  WOrld  could  no  longer  be  ruled 
from  Rome  alone.  On  the  Rhine,  on  the  Danube, 
on  the  Euphrates,  strong  armies  were  required  to 
guard  the  frontiers  :  yet  it  was  precisely  from  these 
armies,  strangers  to  the  Imperial  city  and  to  the 
person  of  the  legitimate  Augustus,  that  the  brood  of 
usurpers  and  tyrants,  claimants  for  the  Imperial 
purple,  was  being  perpetually  recruited.  Diocletian 
now  carved  out  the  Roman  Empire  into  four  great 
Prefectures,  each  large  enough  to  satisfy  the  ambi- 
tion of  a  Charles  V  or  a  Louis  XIV,  and  gave  to 
each  of  these  Prefectures  its  own  court,  its  own 
capital,  its  own  elaborately  organised  official  hier- 
archy. 

The  four  I.  'The  Gauls/  comprising  Britain,  Gaul,  Spain; 
fur*"      and  Part  °f  Morocco,  and  reaching  from  the  Firth  of 


I.] 


The  Roman  Empire. 


23 


Clyde  to  Mount  Atlas,  had  its  centre  of  government 
at  Augusta  Trevirorum  (Trier  on  the  Moselle). 

II.  'Italy/  comprising  Raetia,  Italy,  Sicily,  and 
the  wealthy  provinces  of  Africa,  was  still  in  theory 
governed  from  Rome ;  but  practically  its  Emperor 
during  the  whole  of  the  fourth  century  was  generally 
resident  at  Mediolanum  (Milan). 

III.  Illyricum,  the  smallest  of  the  four  Prefec- 
tures, included  the  provinces  of  the  Middle  Danube, 
the  western  portion  of  the  country  lately  known  as 
Turkey  in  Europe,  and  Greece.  Sirmium  on  the 
Save  was  generally  the  residence  of  its  Emperor. 

IV.  All  the  rest  of  the  Empire  formed  the  rich 
and  important  Prefecture  of  the  East  (Oriens).  Its 
Emperor  for  the  most  part  resided  at  Antioch,  from 
whence  he  watched  the  ever  menacing  attitude  of 
the  Sassanid  kings  of  Persia. 

The  great  scheme  of  Imperial  government  matured  Transmis- 
by  the  brain  of  Diocletian,  provided  not  only  for  the 
exercise  but  also  for  the  transmission  of  power,  power. 
The  adoptive  system,  which  had  given  to  the  Empire 
all  the  noblest  sovereigns  of  the  Antonine  period,  was 
to  be  revived  in  all  its  vigour.  Two  Emperors 
ruling  as  Augusti  were  to  adopt  two  younger  col- 
leagues as  their  sons,  who  were  to  bear  the  humbler 
title  of  Caesar,  and  were  to  administer  those  Prefec- 
tures in  which  the  danger  of  war  was  the  keenest, 
and  the  labour  of  ruling  the  most  severe.  As  in  the 
course  of  nature  the  two  senior  partners,  the  Augusti, 
moved  off  the  scene,  the  Caesars  were  to  take  their 


24 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[I. 


place  and  adopt  two  new  Caesars  to  ease  them  of 
their  burden,  and  one  day  inherit  their  dignity.  An 
elaborate  and  ingenious  scheme,  and  one  which  might 
conceivably  have  preserved  the  Empire  from  civil 
war  at  least  for  two  or  three  generations,  but  which 
in  fact  was  broken  to  pieces  by  that  longing  after  the 
hereditary  transmission  of  power  and  wealth  which 
is  one  of  the  deepest  instincts  of  humanity.  Diocle- 
tian and  Maximian  (a  brave,  uncultivated  soldier) 
were  the  two  first  Augusti :  Constantius  and  Galerius 
the  two  first  Caesars.  After  a  prosperous  reign 
of  twenty  years,  enfeebled  health  and  perhaps  a 
desire  to  see  with  his  own  eyes  the  success  of  his 
great  design,  induced  Diocletian  voluntarily  to  resign 
Abdication  the  purple,  and  Maximian,  who  had  no  such  philoso- 

of  Diode-  phicai  inclinations  and  who  was  still  in  the  lusty 
tiany  305.  . 

vigour  of  middle  life,  was  compelled  to  follow  the 
example  of  his  patron.  Thus  did  Constantius  and 
Galerius  become  the  two  new  Augusti,  but  Galerius, 
who  was  the  son-in-law  and  special  confidant  of  Dio- 
cletian, had  the  choice  of  the  two  new  Caesars,  and 
chose  a  nephew  and  a  dependent  of  his  own,  Maximin 
Daza  and  Severus,  neither  of  them  really  fitted  for 
1  the  rule  of  all  things/  Constantius,  a  man  of  mild 
and  gentle  temper,  away  in  distant  Britain  and  already 
smitten  by  disease,  acquiesced  in  the  nominations  of 
his  self-seeking  partner;  but  the  offspring  and  the 
soldiers  of  Constantius  rebelled  against  an  arrange- 
ment so  one-sided  and  inequitable.  Constantine,  the 
brave  young  son  of  Constantius  by  his  concubine 
Helena,  now  in  his  thirty-second  year,  was  at  Nico- 


I.] 


The  Roman  Empire. 


25 


media  in  Bithyniawhen  Diocletian's  abdication  threw 
the  direction  of  the  affairs  of  the  Imperial  partnership 
into  the  hands  of  Galerius,  who  viewed  him  with  no 
friendly  eye,  and  would  fain  have  kept  him  in  honour- 
able captivity  in  Asia.  Repeated  letters  from  his 
colleague  Constantius  at  length  wrung  from  him 
the  required  permission  for  the  young  man's  de- 
parture, and  Constantine,  according  to  a  well-known 
story,  starting  on  the  long  journey  across  Thrace 
by  the  Danube  and  the  Rhine,  caused  the  horses  at 
the  first  few  Imperial  post-stations  to  be  hamstrung, 
in  order  to  prevent  any  courier  from  overtaking  him 
with  a  revocation  of  the  order.  He  reached  York 
in  safety;  he  made  a  successful  campaign  in  Cale- 
donia under  his  father's  auspices,  and  when  that  Death  of 

father  returned  to  York  to  die,  the  legionaries,  led  Constan- 

'  &  '        this.  Eh- 

by  a  Teutonic  chief  Crocus,  king  of  the  Alamanni,  vation  of 

who  held  high  command  among  them,  insisted  with  Constat 

titie ^  25 

one  voice,  that  the  diadem  and  the  purple  of  the  july,  306. 
deceased  Emperor  should  adorn  his  noble  son,  and 
that  whatever  the  new-fangled  constitution  of  Dio- 
cletian might  prescribe,  his  title  should  be  not  Caesar 
but  Augustus.  Of  the  myriads  of  travellers  who 
hurry  to  and  fro  through  the  magnificent  railway 
station  of  York,  how  few  find  time  to  visit  the 
admirable  museum  of  Roman  antiquities  which  is 
within  a  few  hundred  yards  of  the  station,  to  gaze 
upon  the  'multangular  tower'  with  its  courses  of 
square  Roman  bricks,  and  in  thought  to  retrace  the 
history  of  York,  Eoforwic,  Eboracum,  up  to  that  day 
when  the  shouting  soldiery,  enraptured  with  the 


26 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


donative  which  each  man  had  received,  acclaimed 
the  young  hero  'Constantine  Imperator  tu  vincas.' 
Strange  is  it  to  reflect  that  then  what  we  call  '  the 
Eternal  Eastern  Question  '  had  no  existence,  since 
he  who  was  to  give  his  name  to  Constantinople  was 
only  setting  his  foot  on  the  first  rung  of  the  ladder 
of  power,  and  the  Bosphorus,  with  the  inconsider- 
able city  of  Byzantium  on  its  shores,  was  still  a  silent 
and  solitary  water-way,  while  Eboracum  was  making 
and  unmaking  Emperors. 
Confusion      By  the  elevation  of  Constantine  to  the  Imperial 

and  Civil  dignity — an  elevation  which  Galerius  found  himself 

War.  &  J 

eventually  forced  to  consent  to — the  whole  of  Dio- 
cletian's elaborate  scheme  of  adoption,  partnership 
and  succession  was  shattered  into  atoms.  The  son 
of  Maximian,  Maxentius,  followed  the  example  of  the 
son  of  Constantius  and  declared  himself  Augustus. 
Then  old  Maximian  himself  resumed  the  purple. 
In  the  year  308  there  were  six  Emperors  reigning 
at  once,  all  styling  themselves  Augusti.  Civil  war 
in  such  conditions  as  these  became  the  chronic  con- 
dition of  the  Empire.  The  fable  of  the  armed  men 
who  sprang  from  the  dragon's  teeth  sown  by  Cadmus, 
and  who  fought  with  one  another  all  the  long 
summer's  day  till  only  five  were  left,  became  a 
terrible  truth.  Such  was  the  scene,  such  the  utter 
failure  of  his  grand  project  for  promoting  the  peace 
of  the  Empire  upon  which  the  weary  eyes  of  Dio- 

Suicide  of  cletian  closed,  when,  seeking  refuge  in  death  from 

Diocletian,  ^G  indignities  which  his  young  successors  would 
have  put  upon  him,  he  passed  away  from  earth  in 


I.] 


The.  Roman  Empire. 


*7 


his  stately  palace  by  the  Adriatic,  that  palace  which 

in  the  Middle  Ages  became  a  city1. 

Of  the  dragon's  brood  of  combatants,  at  the  time  Constan- 

of  the  death  of  Diocletian  only  two  were  left,  Con-  Hneand 

°  Licinius, 

stantine  in  the  West  and  Licinius  in  the  East.  A  3i5. 
short  civil  war  was  terminated  by  an  apparent  re- 
conciliation between  the  two  kinsmen  (Licinius  had 
married  the  sister  of  Constantine),  and  for  eight 
years  Licinius  seemed  to  be  satisfied  with  an  arrange- 
ment which  left  him  only  the  Eastern  quarter  of  the 
Roman  world,  while  the  Gauls,  Italy  and  Illyricum 
obeyed  his  more  fortunate  and  far  abler  rival.  But 

'Never  could  true  reconcilement  grow, 
Where  wounds  of  deadly  hate  had  pierced  so  deep.' 

The  terrible  loneliness  of  those  who  climb  to  the 
high  places  of  power,  their  incapacity  of  tolerating  a 
rival  near  the  throne  produced  the  usual  results,  and 
in  323  the  second  civil  war  broke  out.  Over  land  and 
sea  the  two  mighty  storm-clouds  moved  with  terrific 
momentum  against  one  another.  Thirty-four  thou- 
sand men  fell  on  the  hardly-contested  field  of  Hadri- 
anople.  Crispus,  the  brave  young  son  of  Constantine, 
forced  the  passage  of  the  Dardanelles  and  laid  siege 
to  Byzantium.  The  final  battle  was  fought  in  Sep- 
tember, 523,  at  Chrysopolis  in  Bithynia.  Licinius  was 
defeated  after  a  most  bloody  encounter,  in  which 
25,000  of  his  followers  were  slain.  He  implored  Constan- 
and  seemed  to  receive  the  pardon  of  his  '  Emperor  tlJ™  5olc 
and    Master'   Constantine,    but  in   the   following  523.  ' 

1  The  city  of  Spalato  now  occupies  the  site  of  the  palace  of 
Diocletian,  which  was  built  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Salona. 


28 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


year,  on  some  suspicion  of  conspiracy,  was  put  to 
death.  Seventeen  years  after  his  being  proclaimed 
at  York,  Constantine  was  sole  and  absolute  master 
of  the  Roman  world. 

The  generation  which  witnessed  the  break-down 
of  Diocletian's  scheme  of  adoptive  succession  wit- 
nessed also  the  final  triumph  of  Christianity  over  its 
persecutors.  By  a  somewhat  undeserved  fate,  the 
name  of  the  great  restorer  of  the  Empire  has  been 
handed  down  to  after  ages  as  that  of  the  fiercest  and 
most  cruel  of  the  oppressors  of  the  Church.  The 
persecution  of  the  Christians  which  was  commenced 
under  Diocletian,  and  which  continued,  with  some 
intermission,  for  the  two  last  years  of  his  reign  and 
till  the  eighth  year  after  his  abdication,  was  not 
apparently  originated  by  him,  but  by  his  younger 
and  infinitely  less  statesmanlike  colleague  Galerius, 
who  obtained  the  sanction  indeed,  but  not  the  hearty 
co-operation  of  the  aged  and  now  valetudinarian 
Emperor.  Still  it  must  be  admitted  that  Diocletian, 
though  no  fanatical  adorer  of  the  Olympian  gods, 
believed  in  the  necessity,  on  political  grounds,  of 
one  great  and  relentless  struggle  for  the  suppression 
of  the  '  new  and  illicit  religion '  which  had  grown  up 
in  the  bosom  of  the  Roman  State,  and  which,  as  all 
men  of  clear  insight  perceived,  must  either  conquer 
it  or  be  conquered  by  it. 

The  same  purely  political  instinct  which  made 
Diocletian  persecute,  led  Constantine  to  foster  and 
favour  the  Christian  Church.  Could  we  penetrate 
the  secrets  of  the  hearts  of  these  two  men,  we  might 


I.] 


The  Roman  Empire. 


29 


find  that  their  religious  convictions  were  not  very 
dissimilar.  Both  were  probably  at  heart  Monothe- 
ists,  both  had  that  belief  in  a  just  and  overruling 
Providence,  which  comes  to  most  men  who  are  in 
authority,  and  who,  seeing  the  endless  labour  and 
contrivance  which  is  needed  in  an  earthly  ruler  to 
keep  his  world  in  any  degree  of  order  and  peace, 
cannot  easily  persuade  themselves  that  the  whole  of 
this  fair  system  of  things  which  we  see  around  us 
came  by  chance.  It  may  be  doubted  whether,  in  his 
heart  of  hearts,  Diocletian  went  much  beyond  this 
position  in  his  worship  of  Jupiter,  or  Constantine — 
at  any  rate  till  near  the  close  of  his  life — in  his  belief 
in  Christ.  But  the  younger  Emperor  saw  clearly  that 
no  fresh  attempt  to  extirpate  Christianity  by  force 
could  succeed  when  Diocletian  had  failed ;  that  the 
new  religion  made  of  its  votaries  not  only  better 
men,  but,  upon  the  whole,  better  citizens  and  more 
loyal  subjects;  that  it  possessed  a  force  which, 
wisely  guided,  might  be  used  for  the  preservation 
and  not  for  the  disruption  of  the  Empire ;  above  all, 
that  the  zealous  partisanship  of  Christian  bishops 
and  priests  would  be  a  far  more  valuable  ally  to  him 
in  the  desperate  strife  with  his  competitors — first 
with  Maxentius  and  then  with  Licinius — than  the 
languid  half-hearted  acquiescence  of  the  Pagans  in 
the  religion  which  was  a  fashion  rather  than  a  faith, 
handed  down  to  them  from  their  forefathers. 

Thus,  then,  the  alliance  of  Constantine  with  the 
Christian  Church  was  formed,  that  alliance  of  which 
the  imposing  Council  of  Nicaea,  consisting  of  318 


30  Dynasty  of  Theodosius.  [r. 

bishops,  presided  over  by  the  great  Augustus  him- 
self, glorious  in  purple  and  gold,  was  the  most  con- 
spicuous seal  and  symbol.  But  though  Constantine 
fostered,  and,  if  I  may  so  say,  petted  the  Christian 
Church,  he  did  not  bring  about  that  complete  and 
intimate  union  of  the  State  and  the  Church  which 
was  to  be  the  distinguishing  mark  of  the  later,  and 
pre-eminently  of  the  Eastern  Empire.  Christian 
ideas  indeed  coloured  much  of  his  legislation.  An 
edict  was  passed  for  the  observance  of  i  the  Saviour's 
day,  the  day  of  Light  and  of  the  Sun and  the  sol- 
diers, even  those  who  did  not  profess  Christianity, 
were  enjoined  to  meet  on  that  day  in  some  open 
space  near  the  city  in  which  they  were  quartered  and 
to  lift  up  their  hands  to  heaven  thanking  God  for  past 
victories,  and  imploring  Him  long  to  preserve  in 
safety  and  triumph  their  Emperor  Constantine  and  his 
pious  sons.  Every  attempt  to  compel  Christians  to  be 
present  at  idolatrous  sacrifices  was  rigorously  for- 
bidden. The  more  licentious  of  the  heathen  orgies 
were  forcibly  suppressed.  Many  idol  temples  were 
thrown  open  to  the  gaze  of  the  vulgar,  and  some 
were  stripped  of  their  treasures  and  their  revenues 
for  the  benefit  of  the  Imperial  Treasury. 

Still  there  was  no  formal  renunciation  of  the  wor- 
ship of  the  gods  of  the  Capitol — no  formal  recogni- 
tion of  Christianity  as  the  religion  of  the  Empire. 
The  temples,  though  in  some  cases  robbed  of  their 
gold  and  silver  ornaments,  remained  standing ;  nay, 
even  in  the  new  and  Christian  capital,  in  Constanti- 
nople itself,  new  temples  were  erected,  of  course  not 


77?^  Roman  Empire.  31 


without  the  Emperor's  cognisance,  to  Rhea,  to  the 
Great  Twin  Brethren,  to  the  Fortune  of  the  New 
Rome. 

Two  generations  passed  after  the  foundation  of  Religious 
Constantinople,  during  which  the  relation  of  ^G^omtan 
Empire  to  the  Christian  Church  was  the  central  tine's  suc- 
question  of  all  politics.  These  were  the  years  during  cessors- 
which  the  strife  between  Athanasian  and  Arian  was 
being  waged  in  all  its  bitterness,  and  the  influence  of 
Constantius,  the  survivor  of  the  sons  of  Constan- 
tine,  and  eventually  the  sole  ruler  of  the  Roman 
Empire,  was  thrown  with  passionate  earnestness 
on  the  side  of  the  Arians,  on  whose  behalf  he 
exerted  a  severity  which  sometimes  amounted  to 
actual  persecution  of  their  opponents.  Then  came 
the  short  and  fruitless  attempt  of  Julian  to  restore 
the  worship  of  the  old  gods.  After  his  death  fol- 
lowed some  further  struggles  with  Arianism,  which 
could  again  boast  the  protection  of  an  Eastern 
Emperor1.  All  these  events  tended  to  bring  the 
supreme  civil  power  more  and  more  deeply  into  the 
innermost  circle  of  ecclesiastical  politics.  Men's 
minds  became  familiarised  with  the  idea  of  one 
supreme  and  triumphant  form  of  the  Christian  faith, 
professed  by  the  Emperor,  inscribed  on  the  forefront 
of  the  State,  and  rigorously  imposed  on  all  citizens 
as  an  essential  condition  of  their  citizenship.  This 
consummation  was  reached  under  that  Emperor 
whose  fortunes  I  shall  before  long  have  to  describe 
to  you,  under  Theodosius,  who  proclaimed  the  final 
1  Valens. 


32 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[i. 


triumph  of  the  Athanasian  faith,  commanded  all  his 
subjects  to  adhere  to  it,  prohibited  the  meetings  of 
heretics,  destroyed  the  temples  of  the  gods,  and 
made  orthodox  Christianity,  what  it  continued  for 
more  than  a  thousand  years,  the  State  religion  of 
the  Roman  Empire. 


LECTURE  II. 

The  Roman  and  the  Teuton. 


Comparison  of  the  Political  and  Social  Condition  of 
the  Empire  and  its  German  Neighbours. 

§  i.    The  Roman. 

Before  I  proceed  to  describe  the  collision  between 
the  Roman  Empire  and  its  Northern  neighbours, 
I  wish  to  sketch,  in  rapid  outline,  the  chief  features 
of  the  political  and  social  condition  of  these  two 
worlds,  so  close  to  one  another  in  geographical 
position,  so  far  removed  from  one  another  in  the 
stages  of  their  respective  development. 

We  saw  something  in  the  last  lecture  of  the  pro-  The  Im- 
cess  by  which  the  Roman  Augustus  had  grown  ^°^^sty 
be  what  he  was,  the  man  with  the  mightiest  oppor- 
tunities for  good  or  for  evil  of  any  on  the  surface  of 
our  planet.  Let  us  now  look  for  a  few  minutes  at 
the  outward  presentation  of  this  greatness  to  the 
eyes  of  his  subjects.  If  we  enter  the  Imperial 
palace  and  pass  the  first  veil  which  guards  the  ante- 
chamber of  the  sovereign  we  find  ourselves  at  length 
before  a  second  veil,  in  front  of  which  are  watching 
thirty  Silentiarii  in  brightly  burnished  helmet  and 
breastplate,  defending  the  '  Silence '  of  the  inner- 
most sanctuary  from  any  rude  intrusion.  Without  the 

D 


34 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[ii. 


favour  of  some  '  illustrious '  functionary  there  would 
be  for  us  but  little  hope  of  entrance  into  that  august 
seclusion :  but  we  who  have  travelled  back  over 
fifteen  centuries  of  time  can  push  aside  the  spectral 
Silentiarius  who  would  forbid  our  entrance,  and  can 
gaze,  without  the  humiliating  ceremony  of  prostra- 
tion (exacted  from  all  his  contemporary  subjects), 
upon  the  face  and  figure  of  the  dread  Augustus. 
He  has  perhaps  just  returned  from  the  amphitheatre, 
and  wears  therefore  the  full  robes  of  royalty  in  which 
he  displays  himself  on  state  occasions  to  his  subjects. 
On  his  head  is  the  diadem,  a  broad  white  band  studded 
with  two  rows  of  pearls,  and  with  an  emerald  or  a 
carbuncle  blazing  in  the  centre.  Jewelled  ear-rings 
hang  down  on  either  side  of  his  face.  Over  his 
shoulders  is  hung  a  purple  robe,  richly  embroidered 
with  gold,  similar  to  the  vestis  picta  which  a  con- 
quering general  used  to  wear  in  old  times  when  he 
was  drawn  in  triumph  to  the  Capitol.  The  use  of 
that  purple  colour  is  now  jealously  reserved  to  the 
Emperor  himself,  the  members  of  the  Imperial 
family,  the  Consuls,  and  a  few  of  the  most  highly 
placed  officers  of  state.  For  any  ordinary  subject 
to  wear  it  would  be  an  act  of  laesa  majestas  (high 
treason).  More  than  once  has  a  Roman  citizen  lost 
his  life,  simply  because  a  purple  robe  has  been 
found  in  his  possession.  Upon  his  feet  the  Emperor 
wears  sandals  of  the  same  purple  dye,  and  these 
also  are  richly  studded  with  jewels. 

In  the  midst  of  all  this  pomp,  though  sleek 
eunuchs  and  brilliantly  dressed  pages  are  moving 


II.] 


The  Roman  and  the  Teuton. 


35 


obsequiously  through  the  chamber,  eager  to  antici- 
pate the  slightest  wish  of  their  master,  the  Lord  of 
the  Universe  does  not  present  the  outward  show 
of  happiness.  There  is  a  look  of  weariness  and 
anxiety  in  his  face,  dark  lines  under  his  eyes, 
languor  and  satiety  in  the  very  tones  of  his  voice. 
Though  there  are  some  exceptions  to  the  rule,  the 
Augustus,  since  the  changes  introduced  by  Diocle- 
tian, leads  generally  an  indoor  life,  unfavourable  to 
health.  He  does  not  take  those  long  and  varied 
journeys  which  filled  up  the  life  of  Hadrian  :  he 
does  not,  except  in  dire  necessity,  march  at  the  head 
of  his  troops  like  Trajan  :  he  does  not  even  drive 
chariots  and  contend  for  prizes  in  the  theatre  like 
Nero.  He  has  now  to  keep  himself  aloof  from  his 
subjects  in  dignified  seclusion  :  his  chief  business  in 
life  is  to  be  worshipped :  and  the  life  of  an  idol 
must,  as  it  seems  to  us,  be  always  a  tedious  life. 
The  one  thing  that  varies  the  monotony  of  the 
slowly-pacing  days  is  fear — that  fear  which,  even 
under  this  new  and  more  settled  order  of  things,  no 
Emperor  can  wholly  banish  from  his  mind — that  in 
some  camp  of  misty  Britain,  or  by  the  mob  of  some 
Syrian  city,  a  rival  Augustus  may  be  suddenly  ac- 
claimed, and  that  it  may  be  necessary  to  struggle 
not  for  dominion  only  but  for  bare  life  against  the 
desperate  antagonist. 

The  being  who  dwelt  in  this  stately  seclusion  was  Deification 

not  only  raised  to  the  ranks  of  the  gods  after  \{x^0ftheEm- 

J  °  peror. 

death  (' Divus*  being  the  regular  official  prefix  of 

the  name  of  a  deceased  Emperor) :  he  was  occasion- 

D  2 


36 


Dynasty  of  Theodosins. 


[ii. 


ally  even  addressed  as  ' Deus  Noster*  'our  God/ 
during  his  life.  ' Dominus  Noster/  'our  Lord*  or 
'our  Master/  was,  however,  his  more  usual  title, 
this  appellation  which  the  modesty  of  Augustus  had 
waived  (since,  as  he  said,  it  implied  that  those  who 
used  it  were  his  slaves)  having  been  freely  accepted, 
and  then  jealously  claimed,  by  his  successors  of  the 
Lower  Empire.  Everything  belonging  to  the  Em- 
peror was  habitually,  and  without  any  trace  of  irony, 
spoken  of  as  'Sacred.'  The  'sacred  bedchamber' 
meant  the  Emperor's  bedroom :  the  '  sacred  lar- 
gesses/ the  Imperial  subscription-list.  'Our  Mild- 
ness/ 'our  Tranquillity/  'our  Clemency,'  are  the 
terms  which  the  Emperors  generally  use  when  they 
are  speaking  of  themselves,  though  occasionally  we 
find  an  Emperor  soaring  even  to  higher  regions  of 
august  self-contemplation  and  speaking  of  himself  as 
'my  Eternity1.'  This  reverential  mode  of  speaking 
of  the  Emperor's  dignity  by  no  means  disappeared 
with  the  adoption  of  Christianity.  A  writer  on 
military  affairs,  who  was  probably  contemporary  with 
Theodosius 2,  says  of  the  oath  taken  by  the  army : 
'The  soldiers  swear  by  God  and  Christ  and  the 
Holy  Spirit,  and  by  the  Majesty  of  the  Emperor, 
which,  according  to  the  will  of  God,  is  to  be  loved 
and  worshipped  by  the  human  race.  For  when  the 
Emperor  has  received  the  name  of  Augustus,  faith- 
ful devotion  is  to  be  rendered,  lifelong  service  is  to 

1  Cod.  Theod.  xii.  i,  160.  It  is  Arcadius  who  uses  this  ex- 
pression. 

2  Vegetius  (De  Re  Militari  ii.  5). 


ii.]  The  Roman  and  the  Teuton.  37 


be  paid,  to  him  as  to  God  present  in  a  human  body  \ 
For  that  man,  whether  soldier  or  civilian,  serves 
God  who  faithfully  loves  him  who  reigns  by  God's 
ordinance/ 

In  one  of  the  apartments  of  the  palace  was  assem-  The  Impe- 
bled  the  Consistory  of  the  Emperor,  a  body  some-  rm[  Con~ 

^  sistory. 

what  resembling  our  Privy  Council,  and  consisting 
of  all  the  highest  officials  of  the  State.  From  this 
Consistory  now  went  forth  all  laws,  addressed  in  the 
Emperor's  name  to  some  great  functionary  charged 
to  see  to  their  execution.  Here,  too,  were  announced 
the  names  of  those  persons  whom  the  Emperor 
nominated  to  the  highest  places  in  the  civil  and 
military  service.  All  this  legislative  and  adminis- 
trative work,  which  in  the  days  of  the  Republic  had 
required  the  concurrence  of  the  Senate  and  People 
of  Rome,  and  a  large  share  of  which  had  been  left 
even  by  Augustus  and  Tiberius  to  the  Senate,  was 
now  done  by  the  mere  fiat  of  the  Emperor;  and  only 
slight  traces  of  even  a  theoretical  right  of  confirma- 
tion by  the  Senate,  none  at  all  of  such  a  right  of 
confirmation  by  the  People,  seem  to  have  been 
preserved. 

The  officials,  civil  and  military,  by  whom  the  work  Three 
of  ruling  the  vast  Roman  Empire  was  carried  on,  C/^SJ^ 
were  divided  into  three  great  classes  : —  rial  hier- 

1.  The  Illustres,    nearly  corresponding   to  our  archy- 
Cabinet  Ministers  and  Commander-in-Chief. 

1  'Nam  imperator  cum  Augusti  nomen  accepit,  tanquam  prae- 
senti  et  corporali  Deo  fidelis  est  praestanda  devotio,  inpendendus 
pervigil  famulatus.' 


38 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[ii. 


2.  The  Spectabiles,  whose  rank  was  not  unlike 
that  of  our  Privy  Councillors,  and  who  included 
most  of  the  governors  of  provinces  and  military 
officers  of  rank. 

3.  The  Clarissimi.  This  title  was  given  to  all 
Senators,  and  was  also  shared  by  some  of  the 
governors  of  provinces  of  inferior  rank,  and  subor- 
dinate commissioned  officers. 

The  various  degrees  and  orders  of  this  great 
official  hierarchy  were  accurately  described  in  a 
treatise  called  the  Notitia  Utriusque  Imperii,  which, 
there  is  some  reason  to  think,  was  written  up  by 
each  Emperor  afresh  on  his  accession  to  the  throne. 
This  document  is  illustrated  by  somewhat  grotesque 
pictures,  emblematic  of  the  contents  of  the  various 
chapters,  which  may  have  been  drawn  by  the  un- 
skilful fingers  of  the  Imperial  scribe.  The  copies  of 
the  Notitia  which  we  possess  describe  the  state  of 
things  existing  about  the  beginning  of  the  fifth 
century,  and  bring  before  us  in  a  wonderful  manner 
the  various  and  skilfully  contrived  channels  by 
which,  in  theory  at  least,  the  great  Imperial  power 
flowed  down  to,  and  was  brought  in  contact  with, 
the  meanest  of  its  subjects.  The  first  chapter 
enumerates  all  the  chief  officers  of  the  Eastern 
Empire.  The  second  takes  up  the  office  of  the 
Praetorian  Prefect,  greatest  of  all  the  Illustres, 
a  man  who,  after  his  office  had  undergone  great 
mutations,  had  at  length  become,  so  to  speak,  the 
Grand  Vizier  of  the  Emperor,  his  alter  ego  and 
vicegerent,  the  official  who  took  as  much  as  possible 


II.] 


The  Roman  and  the  Teuton. 


39 


of  the  drudgery  of  ruling  off  the  shoulders  of  a 
monarch,  who,  if  ill-disposed,  wanted  to  take  his 
fill  of  luxury  and  sensual  enjoyment,  or  if  earnest  to 
perform  the  duties  of  his  station,  was  generally  busy 
on  the  frontier,  warring  with  the  barbarians. 

Though  the  scheme  of  Diocletian  for  'adoptive 
succession,  and  partnership  '  had  broken  down,  his 
skilful  division  of  the  vast  spaces  of  the  Empire  still 
endured,  and  each  one  of  the  four  Prefectures 
founded  by  him  was  still  under  the  rule  of  its  own 
special  Praetorian  Prefect.  This  second  chapter, 
then,  of  the  Notitia  describes  the  various  provincial 
governors,  who  are,  in  its  phrase,  '  under  the  dis- 
position '  of  the  Illustrious  Praetorian  Prefect  of 
the  East.  Then  follows  an  enumeration  of  the 
official  staff— the  registrars,  the  shorthand-writers, 
the  process-servers,  the  beadles,  the  gaolers  who 
were  employed  in  the  court  of  the  Praetorian  Pre- 
fect, himself  not  merely  a  great  Minister  of  State, 
but  also  the  highest  Judge  of  Appeal,  Premier,  and 
Lord  Chancellor  in  one. 

Another  chapter  of  the  Notitia  gives  the  emblems  Magister 
of  the  dignity  of  the  Illustrious  Master  of  the  Mlhtiae- 
Soldiery  in  the  East,  and  enumerates  the  various 
legions  which  were  under  his  disposition.  And 
here  we  are  brought  face  to  face  with  the  interest- 
ing question,  What  was  the  size  of  the  Roman  army  Probable 
at  the  time  when  its  greatest  struggle  with  the  bar- size  °fthe 

Imperial 

barians  began  ?    Unfortunately  the  Notitia,  though  army. 
it  gives  us  much  detailed  information  as  to  the 
disposition  of  various  bodies  of  infantry  and  cavalry, 


4o 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[n. 


does  not  enable  us  to  give  a  definite  answer  to  this 
question  ;  and  unfortunately  also  an  impression  has 
been  produced,  one  can  hardly  tell  how,  that  by 
this  time  the  Legion,  the  well-known  unit  of  com- 
putation in  the  Roman  army,  had  been  formally 
reduced  from  its  old  strength  of  6100  men  to  about 
1000.  Of  course  this  suggestion  throws  all  calcula- 
tions as  to  the  size  of  the  army,  derived  from 
the  number  of  legions  contained  in  it,  into  confu- 
sion. But  as  no  proof  of  this  formal  reduction  of 
the  legion  has  yet  been  offered,  I  prefer  to  take 
it  at  its  old  valuation  :  and  so  doing,  I  come  to 
the  conclusion  that  the  Roman  army  at  the  end 
of  the  fourth  century  consisted  on  paper  of  at  least 
950,000  men1.  To  deduce  from  this  its  actual 
effective  strength  can  be  only  a  matter  of  conjec- 
ture ;  but  my  conjecture  would  be  that  fully  one- 
half  of  the  above  number,  or  475,000  men,  were 
at  that  time  serving  under  the  banners  of  the 
Empire  2. 

1  The  Computation  proceeds  in  this  way.  The  Notitia  enume- 
rates 132  '  Legions '  of  foot  soldiers  and  109  other  bodies  of  infantry, 
'  Numeri,'  '  Auxilia,'  and  so  forth,  whose  precise  strength  we  cannot 
ascertain:  also  91  *  Vexillationes,'  'Alae,'  &c,  of  cavalry. 

Taking  the  132  Legions  at  6100  men  we  get  .  805,200 
Taking  the  109  Numeri,  &c.  at  1000  we  get  .  109,000 
Taking  the  91  Vexillationes  at  600  (the  full 

number  of  a  Vexillatio)  we  get        .       .  54,600 

968,800 

2  There  is  an  interesting  passage  in  the  Greek  historian  Agathias 
(who  wrote  about  570)  which  illustrates,  if  it  does  not  precisely 
confirm  the  view  here  taken.  He  says  (Hist.  v.  13):  '  The  armies 
of  the  Romans  no  longer  remained  of  the  size  at  which  they  had 


ii.]  The  Roman  and  the  Teuton.  41 


If  I  am  not  wearying  you,  we  will  turn  over  a 
few  more  pages  of  this  wonderful  handbook,  which 
I  have  often  in  my  own  mind  compared  to  a  Whit- 
aker's  Almanack  and  an  Army  List  for  the  fifth 
century  after  Christ,  bound  up  together.  Even  that 
comparison  hardly  does  justice  to  the  Notitia.  I 
doubt  if  we  have  any  book  which  in  our  own 
country  shows  so  clearly  and  so  concisely  the  re- 
lations of  the  various  departments  of  our  State  to 
one  another  (for  instance,  of  the  Exchequer  to  the 
Treasury,  or  of  the  Privy  Council  to  the  Poor  Law 
Board)  as  this  treatise  shows  the  functions  of  the 
great  officers  of  the  Roman  State  and  the  classes 
of  civil  servants  over  whom  they  bore  sway.  After 
the  Master  of  the  Soldiery,  that  is,  the  Commander- 
in-Chief,  we  come  to  the  Illustrious  Grand  Chamber- 
lain, or,  as  he  was  called  in  the  high-flown  language 
of  the  Court,  the  Superintendent  of  the  Sacred  Praeposi- 
Cubicle.    Our  MSS.  of  the  Notitia  are  defective 

Cubiculi. 

in  the  chapters  relating  to  this  magnificent  person- 
age, but  we  know  from  other  sources  that  he  ruled 
over  an  army  of  pages,  scullions,  keepers  of  the 

been  originally  fixed  by  the  earlier  Emperors,  but  had  dwindled 
down  to  a  tiny  remnant,  by  no  means  adequate  to  the  size  of  the 
State.  For  whereas  they  ought  to  amount  in  the  whole  to  645,000 
warlike  men,  they  have  been  now  reduced  to  little  more  than 
150,000.'  As  Agathias  wrote  under  Justinian,  after  the  greater 
part  of  the  West  had  been  lost  to  the  Empire,  he  probably  re- 
duced his  figures  of  '  paper-strength  '  and  '  effectives  '  in  proportion 
to  the  diminution  of  the  Empire  ;  and  if  so,  he  would  probably  have 
accepted  for  the  year  400,  when  the  territories  of  the  sons  of 
Theodosius  were  still  intact,  a  result  like  that  mentioned  in  the 
text. 


42 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[ii. 


Magister 
Officiorum. 


Quaestor. 


Comes  Sa- 
crarum 
Largiti' 
onum. 

Comes  Pri- 

vatarum 

Kerum. 


wardrobe,  grooms  of  the  bedchamber,  and  the  like, 
and  that  the  thirty  gleaming  Silcntiarii  who  watched 
outside  the  purple  veil  took  their  orders  from  him. 

The  Illustrious  Master  of  the  Offices  is  next 
described.  In  a  quaint  picture  are  represented  the 
emblems  of  his  rank,  a  table  with  the  likeness  of  the 
Emperor  standing  upon  it,  and  underneath  shields, 
spears,  greaves  and  helmets.  We  learn  from  the  text 
that  the  arsenals  of  the  Empire,  the  Postal  Service, 
the  four  great  bureaux1  which  were  responsible  for 
the  Imperial  correspondence  and  for  receiving  and 
answering  petitions,  the  swarm  of  King's  Messengers 
(as  they  would  now  be  called)  or  Agentes  in  Rebus, 
who  rode  up  and  down  through  the  provinces,  exe- 
cuting the  orders  of  the  Sovereign,  were  all  under 
the  disposition  of  this  hard-worked  and  useful 
functionary. 

The  Illustrious  Quaestor  was  responsible  for  the 
preparation  of  the  Emperor's  Edicts,  and  seems  to 
have  shared  with  the  Master  of  the  Offices  the  duty 
of  replying  to  the  humble  petitions  of  his  subjects. 
A  bundle  of  these  petitions  and  a  box,  which  looks 
like  a  pillar  post-office,  inscribed  'Leges  Salutares,' 
appear  on  his  page  of  the  Notitia  among  the  emblems 
of  the  Quaestor's  dignity. 

The  Illustrious  Count  of  the  Sacred  Largesses 
and  Count  of  the  Private  Domains  were  the  two 
great  financial  ministers  of  the  State.  Theoretically 
the  first  might  have  been  expected  to  discharge  only 
the  duties  of  a  Grand  Almoner,  in  supervising  the 

1  Scrinia. 


ii.]  The  Roman  and  the  Teuton.  43 


Imperial  Charities.  Practically,  however,  he  had  to 
superintend  the  collection  of  revenue  from  Illyrian 
silver  mines  and  Egyptian  corn-fields,  from  the 
manufacturers  of  linen,  and  the  traders  in  salt. 
The  Count  of  the  Private  Domains  similarly  super- 
intended the  vast  estates  belonging  to  the  Crown  in 
the  various  provinces  of  the  Empire,  defended  them 
from  squatters,  urged  the  claims  of  his  sovereign  to 
the  land  of  a  subject  dying  without  natural  heirs, 
and  received  the  reports  of  the  stud-masters  who 
watched  over  the  troops  of  horses  reared  for  the 
Emperor  in  the  plains  of  Thrace  and  Cappadocia. 
The  pictures  denoting  the  functions  of  these  two 
officers  are  nearly  alike,  both  representing  money- 
chests,  sacks  fat  with  gold  and  silver,  and  great 
bowls  filled  with  round  masses  of  bullion. 

Such  is  a  very  brief  outline  of  the  system  of  Merits  and 
civil  and  military  administration   as  arranged  by  ^^f^ 
Diocletian  and  Constantine.    This  bureaucracy  (I  rial  £21- 
know  no  pure  English  word  which  expresses  the  reaucracy- 
idea)  carried  on  the  government  of  the  Eastern 
Empire  for  more  than  a  thousand  years.    It  had 
great  faults— it  was  grasping,  repressive,  too  often 
corrupt.    At  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century,  if 
we  may  believe  a   poet  of  the   Opposition  \  an 
Eunuch,  who  by  Imperial  favour  had  climbed  up 
into  the  high  place  of  Praetorian  Prefect,  dared 
to  open  an  auction  mart  in  his  private  chamber 
for  the  actual  sale  of  provincial  governorships  to 
the  highest  bidder.     And  even  where  there  was 

1  Claudian. 


44 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[ii. 


not  positive  corruption,  there  can  be  little  doubt 
that  the  rule  of  the  Byzantine  officials  was  gene- 
rally impoverishing  and  exhausting  to  the  pro- 
vinces, paying  but  little  heed  to  their  just  complaints, 
and  bent  on  screwing  out  of  them  the  uttermost 
farthing  for  the  Emperor,  if  not  for  the  officials* 
own  private  benefit.  Still  the  officialism  of  the 
Empire  had  some  great  merits,  without  which  it 
could  never  have  subsisted  so  long  as  it  did.  The 
regular  gradation  of  offices,  the  scientific  division 
of  powers,  the  career  opened  by  the  civil  service 
to  intellect,  irrespective  of  noble  birth  or  warlike 
prowess — all  these  things  made  of  the  administra- 
tive hierarchy  of  the  Roman  Empire  a  great  engine 
of  civilisation  in  those  dim  mediaeval  centuries, 
and  one  which  contrasted  favourably  in  many  re- 
spects with  the  rough  barbaric  forces  that  were 
everywhere  else  struggling  for  supremacy.  If  the 
student  wishes  to  know  how  it  was  that  the  Em- 
pire of  Constantine,  notwithstanding  all  its  degene- 
racy, lasted  on  in  the  East  for  1120  years,  let  him 
study  that  curious  and  interesting  document,  the 
Notitia  Imperii. 

Social  con-      Passing  from  the  political,  I  will  make  a  few 

dition  of    remarks  on  the  social  state  of  the  Empire  in  the 

the  Em-  .  r 

pire.         fourth  century  after  Christ.    Our  information  on 

this  subject  is  very  imperfect.  We  have  no  authors 
who,  like  the  comedians  of  Athens,  or  like  Horace 
and  Juvenal  in  Rome,  enable  us  to  reconstruct  a 
picture  of  the  manners  and  customs  of  those  far- 
off  times,  almost  as  vivid  as  is  furnished  by  the 


ii.]  The  Roman  and  the  Teuton.  45 


Miss  Austens  and  the  Anthony  Trollopes  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  Still  we  have  something.  Am- 
mianus  Marcellinus,  the  great  historian  of  Julian 
and  Valentinian,  possessed  the  eye  and  hand  of  a 
satirist ;  and  St.  Jerome,  even  in  denouncing  the 
vices  of  fashionable  society  in  Rome,  brings  us  into 
nearer  acquaintance  with  its  good  as  well  as  its  evil 
qualities. 

Taking  a  broad  survey,  we  may  say  that  the  Division 
characteristic   of  Roman   social  life   in  the  later between 

classes. 

Empire,  was  the  gulf  (a  far  wider  and  more  bridge- 
less  gulf  than  exists  in  our  own  day)  between  the 
very  rich  and  the  very  poor.  The  Roman  did  not 
take  naturally  either  to  manufacturing  or  to  retail 
shop-keeping.  He  was  (perhaps  I  should  rather 
say,  he  had  been)  essentially  a  warrior.  The  rich 
Roman  was  still  lawyer,  civil  servant,  money-lender, 
and  land  owner.  The  poor  Roman  was  tiller  of  the 
soil — often  under  very  hard  conditions — or  else 
'  loafer '  (no  other  word  will  express  my  meaning) 
in  the  cities.  What  was  true  of  the  dweller  in  Rome 
was  true  also  to  some  extent  of  the  Romanised 
population  of  the  provinces.  Now,  if  we  consider 
what  these  statements  amount  to,  and  if  we  consider 
also  the  invariable  influence  of  slavery  in  crushing 
out  the  better  class  of  free  artisans,  we  shall  see  that 
we  have  here  a  society  from  which  the  middle  class 
and  the  more  independent  portion  of  the  lower  class 
are  perpetually  tending  to  disappear;  in  other  words, 
a  society  composed  of  the  very  rich  and  of  the 
employes  of  the  State  at  one  end,  and  of  the  pro- 


Dynasty  of  Theodoshts. 


[ii. 


letariat 1  at  the  other,  with  only  weak  and  insufficient 
padding  between. 
Roman  We  have  some  interesting  information  as  to  the 
fortunes.  fortunes  of  wealthy  Romans  about  the  year  420,  after 
the  distress  caused  by  the  invasion  of  the  barbarians 
had  begun.  In  the  first  families  in  Rome  it  was  not 
unusual  for  the  master  of  the  household  to  have  an 
income  of  £  160,000  a  year,  besides  the  produce  of  vine- 
yards and  corn-lands,  which  was  worth  quite  £50,000 
more 2.  Wealthy  families  of  the  second  class  were 
worth  from  £40,000  to  £60,000  a  year.  A  Senator 
named  Probus,  when  his  son  was  made  Praetor 
about  423,  spent  £48,000  on  the  shows  which  it  was 
still  customary  for  that  functionary  to  exhibit  to  the 
people.  Some  fifteen  years  before,  ere  Rome  had  yet 
been  taken  by  the  barbarians,  Symmachus  the  orator, 
a  man  who  was  deemed  to  possess  only  a  moderate 
fortune,  had  spent  £80,000  on  similar  exhibitions  ; 

1  Though  this  word  has  lately  obtained,  chiefly  through  the 
influence  of  French  writers,  rather  too  wide  currency,  as  the  polite 
equivalent  of  '  mob,'  a  writer  on  Roman  affairs  may  with  better  right 
employ  it,  as  it  is  derived  from  the  politics  of  old  Rome.  In  the 
Comitia  Centuriata,  the  lowest  class  of  citizens,  those  who  were 
assessed  on  a  very  small  amount  of  property,  and  who  had  little 
beside  their  children  {proles)  wherewith  to  serve  the  State,  were 
called  proletarii.  The  word  seems  to  have  passed  out  of  use 
before  the  close  of  the  Republic. 

2  In  this  sentence  and  throughout  these  lectures  I  quote 
actual  sums  of  money,  without  attempting  to  make  any  correction 
for  the  alteration  in  its  value,  that  being  an  element  extremely 
difficult  to  calculate.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  purchasing  power 
of  the  equivalent  of  £1  sterling  was  greater  then  than  now,  how 
much  greater  it  is  almost  impossible  to  say,  I  conjecture  about 
double. 


I.] 


The  Roman  and  the  Teuton. 


47 


while  Maximus,  who  was  considered  one  of  the  very 
rich  citizens  of  Rome,  lavished  £160,000  upon  the 
festivities,  which,  notwithstanding  this  prodigious 
expenditure,  only  lasted  seven  days.  At  this  time 
the  palace  of  every  Roman  nobleman  had  spacious 
baths,  forum,  hippodrome,  fountains,  temples  (or 
churches)  within  its  enclosure,  so  that  a  stranger 
visiting  Rome  cried  out  with  enthusiasm 

'  Every  house  is  a  town,  Rome  holds  a  myriad  of  cities.' 

St.  Jerome  tells  us  that  the  devout  lady  Paula, 
who  claimed  descent  on  the  paternal  side  from 
Agamemnon,  and  on  the  maternal  from  the  Scipios, 
was  possessed  of  vast  wealth,  and  that  the  whole 
city  of  Nicopolis  (founded  by  Augustus  to  com- 
memorate the  battle  of  Actium)  belonged  to  her 
alone. 

The  men  who  owned  these  enormous  fortunes  Habits  of 
seemed  to  Ammianus  to  be  for  the  most  part  cold-  u*althy 

r  Romans. 

hearted  and  effeminate  dandies,  unworthy  of  the 
great  name  of  Rome,  whose  foremost  citizens  they 
were.  A  lofty  chariot  would  be  one  man's  sign  of 
distinction,  another  covered  himself  with  a  multitude 
of  cloaks  of  finest  silken  texture,  each  one  fastened 
round  his  neck  by  a  jewelled  clasp,  and  perpetually 
wriggled  his  body  about  or  waved  his  hand  in  order 
to  call  the  attention  of  the  bystanders  to  the  gay 
fringes  of  his  robe  or  the  figures  of  animals  em- 
broidered upon  it  in  divers  colours  of  needle-work. 
Others  strutted  along  the  street  followed  by  a  whole 
army  of  retainers,  and  when  they  entered  the  public 
baths  attended  by  at  least  fifty  slaves,  at  once  began 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[ii. 


to  shout  out  in  a  voice  that  was  meant  to  strike  awe 
into  all  humbler  visitors,  '  Where  are  my  people  ?' 
A  contemptuous  toss  of  the  head  was  all  that  they 
vouchsafed  to  an  acquaintance  ;  to  the  fawning 
flatterer  who  was  hungering  for  their  smile  they 
would  contemptuously  offer  a  hand  or  a  knee  to 
kiss.  But  all  this  affectation  of  aristocratic  hauteur 
vanished  when  some  woman  of  doubtful  reputation 
drew  near,  or  when  news  was  brought  to  them  of 
the  arrival  of  some  fresh  horses  or  charioteers  of 
extraordinary  skill.  The  banquet  was  to  these  men 
a  time  of  dull  and  solemn  sensuality.  When  the 
panting  slave  placed  on  the  table  a  fish  or  a  turkey 
of  unusual  size,  they  would  send  for  the  scales  and 
order  it  to  be  weighed,  and  then  one  of  the  crowd  of 
hungry  secretaries  standing  by  would  be  called  upon 
to  record  the  prodigy  on  his  tablets.  Beyond  this 
kind  of  employment  for  the  pen,  their  ideas  either  of 
literature  or  of  science  hardly  soared. 
The  poorer  Thus  empty  and  frivolous  appeared  to  a  con- 
CfiomT  °^  temporary  satirist  the  lives  of  the  Roman  nobility. 

Of  the  lives  of  the  poorer  citizens  he  gives  us  fewer 
details,  but  we  can  see  that  for  them  as  for  their 
ancestors  the  interest  of  life  was  summed  up  in  three 
words  'Panem  et  Circenses ' — bread  and  circus-shows. 
By  a  well-understood  bargain  between  the  Roman 
mob  and  the  Roman  Emperor— a  bargain  which 
lasted  through  all  the  centuries  from  Julius  to  Augus- 
tulus — he  was  bound  to  provide  them  with  at  least 
food  enough  to  keep  them  from  starving,  and  with  a 
proper  amount  of  excitement  in  the  form  of  games, 


II.] 


The  Roman  and  the  Teuton. 


49 


chariot  races,  and  rights  of  gladiators  and  wild 
beasts ;  and  if  he  failed  in  this,  the  first  duty  of  a 
ruler,  his  diadem  and  his  life  were  both  forfeit. 
The  elaborate  provisions  of  the  Theodosian  code  Bread  dis- 
enable us  to  understand  how  the  duty  of  feeding  the  iributton- 
mob  was  performed.  We  see  the  householders  of 
Rome  seated  on  broad  flights  of  stairs  throughout 
the  fourteen  regions  of  the  City,  and  receiving  from 
the  slaves  who  obeyed  the  orders  of  the  Super- 
intendent of  Supply  {Praefectus  Annonae)  their  loaves 
of  fine  wheaten  flour,  each  weighing  about  a  pound 
and  a  half1,  and  in  addition,  a  certain  quantity 
of  oil. 

And  then  as  to  the  games.  The  history  of  Am-  Games. 
mianus  and  the  letters  of  Cassiodorus  show  us  these 
same  unemployed  citizens  flocking  to  the  stately 
Colosseum,  or  the  spacious  Hippodrome,  and  shout- 
ing themselves  hoarse  with  the  name  of  some 
favourite  gladiator  or  charioteer.  The  chariot  races 
especially,  stirred  the  people  to  a  frenzy  of  excite- 
ment, surpassing  that  of  a  contested  election  or 
an  Irish  faction-fight.  The  two  colours,  blue  and 
green,  flaunted  by  one  set  of  charioteers  or  the 
other,  stirred  the  citizens  both  of  Rome  and  Con- 
stantinople to  the  very  madness  of  triumph  or 
disappointment.  'The  green  charioteer  flashes  by: 
part  of  the  people  is  in  despair.  The  blue  gets 
ahead  :  a  larger  part  of  the  city  is  in  misery.  They 
cheer  frantically  when  they  have  gained  nothing : 

1  Perhaps  the  ration  was  proportioned  to  the  size  of  the  receiver's 
family,  but  this  we  cannot  say  with  certainty. 

E 


5° 


Dynasty  of  Theodosins. 


[li. 


they  are  cut  to  the  heart  when  they  have  received 
no  loss  :  and  they  plunge  with  as  much  eagerness 
into  these  empty  contests  as  if  the  whole  welfare  of 
the  imperilled  fatherland  was  at  stake  V 

In  such  a  round  of  ignoble  excitements,  in  such 
an  attitude  of  dishonourable  dependence  on  the 
feeding  power  of  the  State- -pauperism  disguised 
under  high-sounding  names — the  mob  of  Rome  and 
of  Constantinople,  apparently  also  of  Antioch  and 
Alexandria,  spent  their  lazy  lives.  Meanwhile  the 
agricultural  population  and  the  inhabitants  of  the 
smaller  provincial  towns  were  daily  sinking  lower 
into  the  gulf  of  hopeless  poverty,  toiling,  yet  scarce 
able  with  all  their  labour  to  keep  famine  from  their 
Slave-  doors.  At  the  base  of  the  social  pyramid  were  of 
system.  course  to  be  found  the  Slaves,  those  unhappy  beings 
who,  shut  up  at  night  in  the  huge  and  gloomy  ergas- 
tula  (slave-barracks),  worked  all  day  under  the  hot 
Italian  sun,  cultivating  the  land  of  some  wealthy 
master,  unknown,  unseen,  only  represented  by  a 
hard,  relentless  villicus  (steward^,  himself  a  slave, 
but  delighting  to  make  the  more  miserable  creatures 
under  him  feel  his  power.  These  were  the  kind  of 
establishments  which,  a  hundred  years  or  more 
before  the  Republic  fell,  had  replaced  the  happy 
homesteads  of  the  Latin  or  Sabine  farmer :  and  it 
was  the  sight  of  this  spreading  plague-spot  of  servile 
agriculture  which  in  the  first  century  of  the  Chris- 
tian era  forced  from  Pliny  the  well-known  cry  of 
lamentation,  'Large  estates  have  been  the  ruin  of 

1  Cassiodorus,  Variarum  iii.  51. 


II.] 


The  Roman  and  the  Teuton. 


5i 


Italy  and  are  now  causing  the  ruin  of  the  pro- 
vinces1.' Yet  perhaps  in  the  fifth  century  the  slave 
was  not  the  most  miserable  of  the  rural  inhabitants. 
Christianity  had  already  introduced  some  betterment 
into  his  condition.  The  ergastulum  was  prohibited 
by  law,  if  we  may  not  think  that  it  had  entirely  dis- 
appeared in  fact :  and  decrees  were  beginning  to  be 
issued,  earnestly  protesting  against  that  breaking  up 
of  families  which  is  one  of  the  most  cruel  charac- 
teristics of  predial  slavery2.  And  at  any  rate  the 
slave,  in  all  ordinary  circumstances,  was  safe  from 
death  by  starvation,  a  security  which  was  not  always 
enjoyed  by  his  social  superiors. 

Next  above  the  slave,  and  often  hardly  to  be  dis-  Coloni. 
tinguished  from  him,  was  the  co/onus  or  serf,  a  man 
over  whom  his  lord  had  no  power  of  life  and  death, 
but  who  was  bound — as  were  his  children  after 
him — to  cultivate  a  particular  piece  of  ground  for 
the  owner,  at  a  rent  which  seems  to  have  been 
practically  unchanged  from  generation  to  generation. 
He  had  therefore  no  power  of  changing  his  con- 
dition nor  of  choosing  a  better  landlord,  but  on  the 
other  hand  he  had  practically  a  kind  of  tenant- 
right  which  he  transmitted,  with  the  corresponding 

1  'Verumque  confitentibus  latifundia  perdidere  Italiam :  jam  vero 
et  provincias.  Sex  domini  semissem  Africae  possidebant,  cum 
interfecit  eos  Nero  princeps.'    Hist.  Nat.  xviii.  6. 

2  Cod.  Theod.  ii.  25.  '  Quis  enim  ferat,  liberos  a  parentibus,  a 
fratribus  sorores,  a  viris  conjuges  segregari  ? '  The  date  of  this  law 
is  not  quite  certain,  but  it  probably  belongs  to  a.d.  334.  There  is 
no  doubt  that  Constantine  was  the  author  of  it,  and  we  may  therefore 
fairly  attribute  it  to  Christian  influences. 

E  2 


52 


Dynasty  of  Theodoshis. 


[ii. 


liability,  to  his  children.    This  class  of  compulsory 
cultivators  seems  to  have  sprung  out  of  freeholders 
who  were  weighed  down  by  hopeless  debt,  and  who 
by  process  of  law  became  coloni  of  their  creditors 1 ; 
but  it  was  probably  enormously  increased  during 
the  troubles  of  the  third  and  fourth  centuries,  when 
men  finding  freedom  with  starvation  a  burden  too 
heavy  to  be  borne,  voluntarily  lowered  their  con- 
dition, and  becoming  coloni  accepted  the  helping  but 
degrading  hand  of  a  dominus.   In  times  of  peace  and 
plenty  the  condition  of  a  colonus,  notwithstanding 
his  bounded  horizon  and  his  depressing  round  of 
unvarying  toil,  was  perhaps  not  altogether  to  be 
pitied  :  but  war,  famine,  and  pestilence  must  have 
terribly  reduced  his  narrow  margin  of  profit. 
Curiaks.       Of  all  classes  of  the  community,  however,  none 
seem  to  me  so  truly  to  be  commiserated  as  the 
curiales,  the  vestrymen  and  town-councillors  of  the 
provinces.    These  were  the  descendants  of  the  men 
by  whom  the  local  self-government  of  the  Empire 
had  formerly  been  carried  on,  the  representatives  of 
a  once  flourishing  and  happy  middle  class.  Their 
ancestors  had  been  men  of  importance  in  their  little 
world,  and  the  letters  DEC  (for  Decurio,  or  town- 
councillor)  carved  on  their  tombs  had  shown  their 
right  to  a  coveted  dignity.    But  as  they  bore  rule 
in  their  little  commonwealth,  so  they  were  respon- 
sible for  its  contributions  to  the  public  revenue ;  and 
as  the  Empire  grew  older,  as  it  became  divided,  as 
there  came  to  be  three  or  four  Imperial  Courts  to 
1  See  Fustel  de  Coulanges,  Problemes  de  l'Histoire. 


ii.]  The  Roman  and  the  Teuton.  53 


support  instead  of  one,  and  as  heavier  sums  had  to 
be  paid  to  buy  off  or  to  fight  off  the  barbarians,  so 
the  pressure  of  the  tax-gatherer  became  more  severe, 
while  the  privileges  of  the  town-councillor  became 
more  shadowy.  At  last  the  truth  was  openly  con- 
fessed :  the  curialis  was  a  mere  bond-slave  of  the 
Empire,  bound  to  fulfil  his  'curial  obligations/  that 
is,  to  bear  an  ever-increasing  burden  of  local  rates 
and  imperial  taxes,  transmitting  this  sad  necessity  to 
his  children,  compelled  if  the  land  next  to  him  fell 
out  of  cultivation  to  take  it  up  and  cultivate  it  for  the 
benefit  of  the  Imperial  Treasury,  forbidden  to  become 
a  priest  or  even  a  slave,  lest  by  either  process  he 
might  escape  from  his  bondage  to  the  curia.  One  or 
two  ways  of  escape  from  this  bitter  servitude  were 
indeed  left  open,  but  they  were  narrow,  thorny,  and 
difficult.  Practically  the  chief  liberator  of  the  curi- 
alis and  his  kindest  friend  was  Death. 

The  sketch  which  I  have  thus  offered  you  of  the 
social  condition  of  the  Empire  in  the  fourth  century 
is  certainly  a  gloomy  one.  Like  all  such  sketches  it 
can  only  be  approximately  true.  Doubtless  there 
were  at  Rome  many  nobles  unlike  the  effeminate 
dandies  whom  Ammianus  has  described  to  us : 
doubtless  there  was  in  the  provinces  many  a  cul- 
tivator of  the  soil,  whether  colonus  or  curialis,  who 
glided  happily  enough  through  life,  not  crushed  by 
the  burdens  and  the  despairs  which  seem  to  us  so 
terrible.  Yes :  though  I  cannot  accept  the  proposi- 
tion that  the  sum  of  human  happiness  is  a  constant 
quantity  throughout  the  centuries,  I  doubt  not  that 


54 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[ii. 


in  the  saddest  periods  of  the  history  of  the  world 
there  has  been  more  individual  happiness,  and  in  the 
happiest  of  such  periods  more  individual  suffering, 
than  the  historian  pourtrays  to  us.  But  upon  the 
whole  we  may  confidently  say  that  the  Roman  World, 
at  the  lime  when  the  barbarian  invasion  began  in 
earnest,  was  not  happy  or  flourishing.  Large  tracts 
of  land  within  the  Limes  Imperii  were  going  out  of 
cultivation,  population  both  in  Italy  and  the  provinces 
was  dwindling,  and  I  think  Hope  was  unusually 
absent  from  the  hearts  and  minds  of  men.  In  short, 
the  Empire  was  sinking  under  the  weight  of  its 
official  administration,  even  as  I  fear  that  after 
ages  will  see  that  many  fair  states  of  Europe  are  now 
sinking  under  the  weight  of  the  terrible  armaments 
with  which  mutual  suspicion  has  led  them  to  array 
themselves. 


§  2.  The  Teuton. 

From  the  highly-developed  life  of  the  Empire, 
with  its  signs  of  exhaustion  and  decay,  we  turn 
to  that  of  our  German  forefathers  and  their 
kindred— a  life  rough,  untrained,  undisciplined, 
but  already  utterly  different  from  that  of  mere 
savages,  and  bearing  within  it  the  seeds  of  many 
noble  institutions.  The  German  peoples  (to  speak 
of  them  in  the  language  of  Rome),  the  Deutsche 
(as  they  have  in  more  recent  times  called  them- 
selves), or  the  Teutonic1  race  (which  is  the  term 

1  Waitz  (Deutsche  Verfassungsgeschichte  i.  30)  remarks  that 


II J  The  Roman  and  the  Teuton.  55 


now  generally  used  in  contrast  to  Celts  and 
Slaves),  occupied,  broadly  speaking,  the  territory 
from  the  Rhine  to  the  Danube,  and  along  the 
northern  shore  of  the  Danube  to  the  Black 
Sea.  There  were  settlements,  however,  of  the 
Teutons  on  the  west  of  the  Rhine,  and  in  the 
east  of  Europe  Sclavonic  nations  were  mingled 
with  Teutons  in  a  confusion  which  it  is  now  im- 
possible to  disentangle.  Of  their  ethnological  re- 
lations, however,  I  shall  have  a  little  more  to 
say  in  my  next  lecture.  At  present  my  object 
is  to  give  a  slight  sketch  of  the  inner  life  of 
these  Teutonic  peoples,  in  its  social  and  political 
aspects. 

The  first  detailed  information  that  we  possess  The  Ger- 
as  to  the  customs  of  the  Germans  is  given  us  by  mTans  a' 

fe  J  the  end  of 

Julius  Caesar,  who  describes  the  state  of  things  the  first 
which   prevailed   about   55   years   before   Christ.  century 

_  r  it        •    r  •  after  Christ 

Our  next  and  by  far  our  fullest  information  comes  not  a 

from  Tacitus,  who  wrote  his  priceless  monograph,  nomadic 

the  Germania,  in  98  a.  d.,  that  is,  about  a  century 

and  a  half  after  Caesar.    During  that  interval  it 

is  clear  that  an  important  change  had  come  over 

the  habits  of  the  Germans.    From  being  a  pastoral 

people,  living  chiefly  on  milk  and  cheese  and  the 

flesh  of  their  cattle,  they  had  become,  to  a  large 

extent,  tillers  of  the  soil.     They  still  kept  their 

flocks  and  herds,  and  wealth   among   them  was 

still  measured  chiefly  by  these  possessions ;  but 

'  Teutonic '  and  '  Deutsch '  have  probably  no  connection  with  one 
another. 


56 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[ii. 


bread  was  now  a  staple  article  of  food,  and  per- 
haps that  upon  which  the  slaves  and  the  poorer 
freemen  chiefly  subsisted.  This  change  in  diet 
involved  a  necessary  change  in  the  habits  of  the 
people.  The  shepherd  and  the  herdsman  are 
essentially  wanderers ;  the  varied  needs  of  their 
dumb  companions  in  winter  and  summer,  make 
frequent  change  of  abode  not  only  easy  but  profit- 
able, while  the  agriculturist  of  course  must  re- 
main stationary  to  watch  the  growth  of  the  corn 
which  he  has  sown.  It  seems  probable  that 
Caesar's  conquest  of  Gaul,  Tiberius's  victories  in 
Switzerland  and  the  Tyrol,  and  the  strong  re- 
straining hand  of  Augustus  upon  all  the  tribes 
beyond  the  Rhine  and  the  Danube,  were  partly 
the  cause  of  this  change  in  the  habits  of  the  Ger- 
mans. Cooped  within  narrower  limits,  and  no 
longer  able  to  overrun  at  their  pleasure  the  fair 
lands  of  Gaul  and  Pannonia,  they  betook  them- 
selves of  necessity  to  a  more  careful  cultivation  of 
their  restricted  territory,  and  practised  the  arts  of  a 
rude  husbandry — rude  indeed,  but  incomparably  less 
wasteful  of  the  earth's  resources  than  the  nomadic 
life  of  the  grazier  and  the  sheep-master.  In  its 
turn  this  change  in  their  habits  reacted  on  their 
character.  It  made  the  maintenance  of  peace  be- 
tween them  and  the  Empire  possible  for  two  or  three 
generations  at  a  time,  and  it  so  far  fixed  the  bounds 
of  the  habitations  of  the  Germanic  peoples  them- 
selves, that  the  map  of  Germany  which  is  drawn 
to  illustrate  the  text  of  Tacitus  will  serve,  without 


ii.]  The  Roman  and  the  Teuton.  57 


many  changes,  for  the  distribution  of  the  tribes  in 
the  time  of  Constantine. 

Let  us  try  to  understand  what  the  life  of  these  A  German 
German  farmers  looked  like  in  a  time  of  peace  during  VfJt^f^ent 
the  second  and  third  centuries  of  the  Christian  era. 
Their  settlements,  like  those  of  a  Canadian  back- 
woodsman, were  for  the  most  part  clearings  in  the 
midst  of  'the  forest  primeval.'  Here,  then,  with  a 
girdle  of  woodland  round  them,  was  planted  the 
cluster  of  scattered  houses  which  made  up  the  vil- 
lage. The  Romans  called  it  a  vtcus,  the  modern 
Germans  call  it  a  dorf(a  word  akin  to  our  own  thorp); 
our  Saxon  and  Anglian  ancestors  called  it  some- 
times a  ton1  (town),  sometimes  a  ham2;  while  their 
Danish  invaders  gave  to  the  same  kind  of  settlement 
the  name  of  a  by  or  a  wick3.  The  houses  in  the 
German  village  were  built  of  timber,  and  if  Tacitus 
is  correct  in  saying  that  tiles  were  unknown  among 
them,  we  must,  I  suppose,  conclude  that  the  straw 
thatches  which  are  still  common  in  rural  England 
were  the  roofs  chiefly  used  by  our  German  ancestors. 
One  feature  of  a  German  village  which  struck  the 
eye  of  a  Roman  observer,  and  in  which  it  probably 
differed  even  from  a  Celtic  town,  was  that  there  were 
in  it  no  rows  of  contiguous  houses.    Each  dwelling, 


1  Norton,  Sutton,  Easton,  Weston,  &c. 

2  Laleham,  Farnham,  Tottenham,  &c.,  but  more  often  with 
a  genitive  plural  preceding  it.  Birmingham  (the  village  of  the 
Beormings),  Buckingham  (the  village  of  the  Bucings),  and 
so  on. 

3  Derby,  Danby,  Whitby,  &c. ;  Elswick,  Alnwick,  Chiswick,  &c. 


58 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[n. 


whether  large  or  small,  stood  surrounded  by  its  own 
plot  of  ground,  and  thus  fires  were  less  dangerous 
than  where  the  lines  of  buildings  were  continuous. 
The  description  of  such  a  vicus  given  by  Tacitus 
reminds  one  of  a  Swiss  village,  say  Meyringen, 
Grindelwald,  or  Altdorf,  if  we  can  imagine  all  the 
changes  which  have  been  wrought  therein  by  the 
tide  of  summer  tourists  done  away.  And  the  great 
belt  of  woodland  which  seems  always  to  have  sur- 
rounded the  German  vicus,  and  which  was  to  a 
certain  extent  the  common  property  of  the  villagers, 
who  possessed  rights  of  collecting  fuel,  and  probably 
also  of  hunting  game  in  these  encircling  forests, 
reminds  me  of  several  modern  German  villages 
which  I  have  seen,  but  especially  of  Schwalbach, 
which  is  environed  by  just  such  a  belt  of  trees, 
chiefly  beech-trees.  In  this  beautiful  green  girdle, 
which  is  from  one  to  two  miles  in  depth,  the  poor 
of  the  village  are  still  employed  during  the  winter  in 
felling  and  carrying  wood  for  the  benefit  of  the 
Gemeinde,  and  the  wages  paid  to  them  for  this  work 
seem  to  supply  the  place  of  what  is  called  with  us 
1  out-door  relief/ 
Distinction     In  these  little  sequestered  villages  the  bulk  of  the 

of  classes  in  r*  •         i_   j         •     i  <-ri_ 

J  n  German  warriors  had  their  homes.     I  here  was  a 

a  German 

village.  distinction  of  classes  among  them.  Then,  as  now, 
the  German  looked  upon  noble  birth  with  reverence, 
and  probably  in  every  village  there  were  at  least  one 
or  two  heads  of  families  called  noble,  and  believed 
to  be  sprung  in  far-distant  ages  from  the  seed  of 
gods.    But  the  largest  and  most  important  class  was 


ii.]  The  Roman  and  the  Teuton.  59 


that  of  the  men,  free  but  not  noble  \  who  took  part 
in  all  public  assemblies,  and  who  formed  the  bone 
and  muscle  of  the  national  army,  but  who,  though 
proud  and  independent,  did  not  look  upon  them- 
selves as  eligible  for  any  of  the  highest  places  in  the 
State.  Among  these,  however,  there  were  all  sorts 
of  gradations  of  rank,  depending  partly  on  personal 
qualities,  but  largely  also  on  their  relative  wealth. 
The  chief  outward  sign  of  this  wealth  was  cattle,  so 
much  so  that  the  earliest  translator  of  the  New 
Testament  into  a  Teutonic  tongue  coined  a  word 
equivalent  to  'cattle-hoarder2,'  when  he  wished  to 
warn  his  readers  against  the  'mammon  of  unrighteous- 
ness/ But  slaves  also  were  possessed,  probably  in 
considerable  numbers,  by  wealthy  German  villagers, 
though  they  were  employed  almost  entirely  in  the 
labour  of  the  farm  and  the  pasture,  all  domestic  work 
being  as  a  rule  performed  by  the  female  members 
of  even  the  rich  German  family.  Half-naked,  and 
far  from  clean,  the  children  of  the  master  and  of  the 
slave  sprawled  about  together  on  the  floor  of  either 
home,  until  the  years  of  manhood  were  reached, 
when  it  was  deemed  fitting  that  some  distinctive  dress 
should  show  the  difference  of  their  rank.  But  it  was 
in  these  smoky  huts,  on  these  dirty  floors,  and 
doubtless  also  in  many  a  long  day's  chase  along 
with  the  slave-boys  in  the  encircling  forest,  that 

1  The  Ingcnui  of  the  Latin  writers :  the  Gcmein-freie  of  modern 
Germans. 

2  Faihu-thrains  (literally  cattle-thronging)  is  Ulfilas'  translation 
of  Mo/A/iwi/as. 


6o 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[ii. 


the  fair  limbs  of  the  young  German  warriors  grew 
to  that  size  and  that  sinewy  stateliness  which,  as 
Tacitus  admits,  were  the  admiration  and  the  terror 
of  Rome. 

Land-sys-  JThe  agriculture  of  these  Teutonic  tribes  was  con- 
^Germans  ducted  in  a  manner  which  necessarily  kept  it  in  a 
backward  and  primitive  state.  Apparently  the  Ger- 
mans had  learnt  the  lesson  that  frequent  grain-crops 
exhaust  the  fertility  of  the  soil.  Anything  like  a 
scientific  system  of  manuring,  in  order  to  repair  that 
exhausted  fertility,  was  of  course  yet  undiscovered ; 
but  a  rude  provision  for  fallows  seems  to  have  been 
generally  made.  Periodically,  the  whole  population 
of  the  village  went  forth  into  the  adjacent  country 
and  decided  upon  the  portion  of  pasture  or  moorland 
which  was  to  be  broken  up  by  the  plough  in  order  to 
replace  the  portion  of  arable  land  which  had  earned 
the  right  to  repose.  The  new  corn-land  thus  created 
was  divided  among  the  villagers,  not  equally,  but 
according  to  their  rank  and  wealth,  chiefly  because 

1  This  paragraph  is  an  attempt  to  explain  the  following  passage 
of  Tacitus  (Germania  xxvi)  which  has  been  almost  as  much 
fought  over  by  commentators  as  if  it  had  been  a  text  of  Scrip- 
ture : — - 

'  Agri  pro  numero  cultorum  ab  universis  in  vices  occupantur,  quos 
mox  inter  se  secundum  dignationem  partiuntur.  Facilitatem  parti- 
endi  camporum  spatia  praestant.  Arva  per  annos  mutant;  et  super- 
est  ager.' 

I  follow  in  some  points  the  interpretation  given  by  Waitz 
(Deutsche  Verfassungsgeschichte  i.  109-113  and  140-148),  and 
Dahn  (Geschichte  der  deutschen  Urzeit  i.  171-174)  ;  but  on  the 
whole  the  criticism  of  Fustel  de  Coulanges  (Problemes  d'Histoire, 
263-294)  seems  to  me  to  penetrate  most  deeply  into  the  author's 
meaning. 


ii.]  The  Roman  and  the  Teuton.  61 


rank  and  wealth  implied  a  proportionate  power  of 
cultivation  \  While  the  poor  freeman,  who  was 
only  just  above  the  rank  of  a  slave,  could  bring  only 
his  own  arms  and  those  of  his  sons  to  till  the  little 
patch  of  ground  which  was  allotted  to  him,  his 
wealthy  neighbour,  who  had  slaves  and  horses  and 
herds  in  abundance,  could  cultivate,  and  therefore 
might  insist  upon  having  allotted  to  him,  a  much 
larger  part  of  the  new  corn-land.  Thus,  by  this 
arrangement,  as  by  so  many  of  those  which  belong 
to  a  more  complicated  civilisation,  '  to  him  that  had, 
more  was  given,  so  that  he  had  abundance.'  After 
all,  every  German  village  had  still  so  much  land 
at  its  disposal,  that  few  heartburnings  seem  to  have 
been  caused  on  the  score  of  too  scanty  allotment 2. 
And  in  order  to  prevent  the  complaint  that  one 
villager  received  a  more  fertile  or  a  sunnier  portion 
than  another,  the  lots  periodically3,  perhaps  even 
annually,  changed  hands,  though  still  on  the  same 
principle  of  unequal  division. 

At  first  sight,  such  a  system  as  this  appears  com- 
munistx,  but  on  reflexion  we  see  that  the  right  of 
property,  and  the  inequalities  which  flow  from  the 
acknowledgment  of  that  right,  are  fully  recognised 
by  it.  Only  I  think  we  must  admit — and  here  the 
words  both  of  Caesar4  and  Tacitus  seem  to  justify 

1  '  Secundum  dignationem  partiuntur.' 

2  '  Et  superest  ager.' 

3  'Arva  per  annos  mutant.'  Perhaps  this  is  meant  to  convey  a 
different  meaning  from  '  per  annum.' 

*  De  Bello  Gallico,  iv.  I,  vi.  22. 


62 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[ii. 


our  conclusion — that  there  was  in  the  minds  of  the 
rough  German  politicians  of  the  first  century  before 
and  the  first  century  after  Christ,  a  conviction,  or 
perhaps  rather  an  instinct,  that  the  land,  though  still 
cheap  and  not  much  more  an  object  of  desire  than 
water  or  air,  was,  like  water  and  air,  essential  to  the 
nation's  life ;  and  that,  though  cottages  and  the  sur- 
rounding gardens  were  the  subject  of  absolute  pro- 
perty, and  descended  from  father  to  son  without 
question,  it  was  safer  for  the  community  by  frequent 
changes  to  prevent  the  right  of  any  one  of  its  mem- 
bers to  a  given  space  of  corn-land  or  meadow  from 
becoming  firm  and  immovable. 

How  these  open  fields  were  probably  divided  into 
strips,  or  '  yard-lands  ' ;  how  the  villagers  sometimes 
helped  one  another  in  the  necessary  ploughing  ;  how 
some  traces  of  this  peculiar  kind  of  joint  occupation 
existed  through  the  Middle  Ages,  and  were  still 
manifest  in  our  own  country  even  in  the  early 
part  of  this  century,  has  been  set  forth  with 
much  fulness  of  detail  by  my  friend  Mr.  Seebohm, 
in  his  interesting  book,  The  English  Village  Com- 
munity \ 

Indolence       Whatever  other  advantages  this  system  might  pos- 
°Germans    sess'     was  not  nkely  to  encourage  highly-developed 
agriculture.    But  indeed,  from  the  account  given  by 

1  The  strongest  part  of  Mr.  Seebohm's  book  is,  I  think,  Lis 
illustration  of  the  old  Teutonic  land-tenure  by  the  open  fields  now 
or  lately  existing  at  Hitchin.  I  confess  I  am  not  convinced  by  him 
that  the  open  field  system  and  •  co-aration'  necessarily  imply  a 
servile  tenure  on  the  part  of  the  cultivators. 


II.] 


The  Roman  and  the  Teuton. 


«3 


Tacitus,  which  is  generally  confirmed  by  later  histo- 
rians, it  is  clear  that  the  German  freemen,  though 
far  from  being  the  squalid  savages  that  they  have 
been  sometimes  represented,  were  not  industrious 
tillers  of  the  soil.  War,  the  chase,  the  sword-dance, 
and  the  throw  of  the  dice-box  were  their  chief  ex- 
citements, and  when  they  were  not  excited  they  were 
torpid  and  lethargic.  Long  and  heavy  potations, 
sometimes  continued  for  a  day  and  night  together, 
sometimes  interrupted  by  a  bloody  brawl,  were  fol- 
lowed by  equally  long  and  heavy  slumbers.  Whether 
they  went  to  the  banquet  or  to  market  they  always 
wore  arms,  a  sure  sign  of  a  low  state  of  civilisation  ; 
and  the  gravest  affairs  were  all  discussed  amid 
copious  draughts  of  beer,  or,  if  the  disputants  dwelt 
near  the  Rhine  or  the  Danube,  of  wine  from  the 
land  of  the  Romans.  In  short,  while  we  can  trace 
in  the  Teuton  of  the  first  Christian  centuries  some 
noble  qualities — truth,  courage,  chastity — we  also 
discover  the  marks  of  some  deep  inbred  vices,  which 
beset  him  till  this  day,  especially  drunkenness  and 
the  love  of  gambling ;  and  we  do  not  find  even  the 
germs  of  that  capacity  for  steady  and  continuous 
toil  which,  since  they  became  Christian  and  civilised, 
has  been  the  glory  of  the  German,  the  Anglo-Saxon, 
and  the  Scandinavian. 

Such,  then,  in  brief  outline,  seems  to  have  been  How  the 
the  ordinary  life  of  a  German  village.    The  political  vlllaSe 

.  community 

institutions  of  the  Teutonic  races — which  are  what  developed 
we  are  chiefly  now  concerned  with — depended  on  int0  the 
the  manner  and  extent  of  the  consolidation  of  these 


64 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[II. 


villages  into  larger  and  more  powerful  communities. 
If  we  go  up  to  some  high  table-land  we  shall  see 
little  brooks  and  streams  running  off  from  it  in 
all  directions,  some  of  which  will  perhaps  eventually 
form  part  of  a  great  and  world-famous  river,  while 
others  will  find  their  way  unnoticed  to  the  sea.  In 
studying  the  early  history  of  the  Germanic  tribes,  we 
stand  on  such  a  table-land.  The  future  fortunes  of 
Franks,  Visigoths,  Burgundians,  Angles,  Saxons, 
are  involved  in  the  village  politics  of  these  much- 
drinking,  freely-fighting  German  boors ;  but  there 
are  also  involved  the  obscure  destinies  of  countless 
little  tribes,  whose  uncouth  names  survive  only  in 
the  pages  of  Tacitus  or  Jordanes,  and  are  in  fact 
forgotten  by  men. 
Manifold-  The  characteristic  of  German  polity,  as  much  in 
^German  tne  ^rst  century  after  Christ  as  in  the  sixteenth,  as 
political     much  in  the  time  of  Arminius  as  in  that  of  Charles  V, 

life  ..... 

was  its  infinite  diversity.  There  were  tribes  that 
knew  no  king,  tribes  that  had  kings  with  very  limited 
powers,  tribes  that  submitted  to  despotism — or  some- 
thing very  like  it — on  the  part  of  their  kings,  and 
tribes  that  even  endured  to  have  such  authority  over 
them  exercised  by  a  woman.  And  the  chief — I  will 
not  say  the  only — cause  of  this  diversity  seems  to 
have  been  the  relative  greatness  or  littleness  of  the 
clusters  into  which  the  village  communities  ultimately 
coalesced  ;  and,  closely  connected  herewith,  the  ques- 
tion whether  the  organism  which  was  thus  finally 
formed  entertained  widely  extended  schemes  of  ag- 
gression and  foreign  conquest,  or  whether  it  rested 


ii.]  The  Roman  and  the  Teuton.  65 


content  with  the  defence  of  its  own  narrow  borders 
against  an  invading  foe. 

Apparently  every  German  village,  at  the  time  which  The  Pagus, 
we  are  now  considering,  had  so  far  coalesced  with  GJ?U' 

°'  County  or 

some  of  its  neighbours  as  to  form  what  the  Romans  Canton. 
called  a  pagus.  The  extent  of  these  pagi,  and  the 
number  of  vici  which  united  to  form  them,  doubtless 
differed  exceedingly,  but  as  we  find  that  in  the  time 
of  Caesar 1  each  Suevic  pagus  sent  forth  1000  armed 
men,  an  equal  number  remaining  at  home  to  till  the 
ground,  we  may  perhaps  assume  that  the  whole 
population  of  a  pagus  generally  consisted  of  about 
10,000  persons,  and  that  about  ten  via)  more  or  less, 
contributed  to  its  formation.  The  choice  of  a  Teu- 
tonic word  to  represent  the  term  pagus,  which, 
though  convenient,  is  foreign,  has  not  been  found 
easy.  Modern  German  scholars  have  generally 
adopted  the  word  Gau,  which  was  extensively  used 
in  the  Middle  Ages,  though  it  is  admitted  that  this 
does  not  precisely  correspond  to  the  pagus,  but  was 
often  of  somewhat  smaller  extent.  As  an  English 
equivalent,  county  or  shire  comes  the  nearest,  though 
both  of  them  suggest  ideas  of  a  somewhat  later  time2. 
Whether  such  a  translation  be  scientifically  accurate 
or  not3  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  feeling  of 

1  De  Bello  Gallico  iv.  I. 

2  We  have  a  word  Gd  in  English  akin  to  the  German  Gau,  but 
it  does  not  seem  to  have  been  ever  extensively  used.  For  the 
reasons  why  shire  is  not  precisely  appropriate,  see  Prof.  Freeman's 
Essay  '  The  Shire  and  the  Ga.'  Have  we  a  trace  of  the  Gau  in  the 
names  of  Linlithgow  and  Glasgow  ? 

3  Bishop  Stubbs  makes  the  '  hundred  *  answer  to  the  pagus,  but  as 

F 


66 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[ii. 


local  patriotism  which  still  animates  a  Devonshire 
man  or  a  Shropshire  man  when  he  speaks  of  his 
county,  represents,  at  least  as  well  as  any  other 
modern  equivalent,  the  bond  which  bound  a  German 
warrior  to  his  pagus.  But,  upon  the  whole,  the  Swiss 
canton,  both  in  extent  and  in  the  manner  of  its  growth, 
namely,  by  the  coalition  of  the  inhabitants  of  several 
neighbouring  valleys,  seems  to  me  the  most  fitting 
representative  of  the  pagus  of  the  Germania. 

Some  German  communities,  perhaps,  stopped  in 
the  process  of  consolidation  at  the  canton,  and  never 
reached  a  further  stage.  They  may  have  had  tradi- 
tions, and  even  religious  rites,  which  kept  alive  the 
remembrance  that  they  formed  part  of  a  larger  tribe, 
that  they  were  Suevi,  or  Mattiaci,  or  Chauci ;  but  as 
far  as  political  organisation  went  they  were  willing 
to  be  a  pagus  and  nothing  more.  If  so,  we  may 
probably  affirm  that  the  tribes  which  contained  many 
of  these  self-isolated  cantons  retained  what  has  been 
called  their  '  republican '  organisation,  engaged  but 
little  in  offensive  war,  were  feeble  in  their  resistance 
to  Rome,  and  have  left  but  little  mark  in  history. 
Several  The  first  step  towards  national  existence  on  a 
^mtght  larger  scale  was  taken  when  many  pagt,  bound 
coalesce      together  for  the  most  part  by  the  traditions  of  a 

into  a  common  origin,  organised  themselves  into  what  the 
Civitcis. 

Romans  called  a  civitas,  and  in  doing  so  generally, 
perhaps  not  always,  elected  for  themselves  a  King. 
I  do  not  think  it  is  possible  to  find  a  term  which 

there  were  65  hundreds  in  Sussex  alone,  this  seems  a  very  small  divi- 
sion to  represent  the  great  and  important  pagi  of  Caesar  and  Tacitus. 


ii.]  The  Roman  and  the  Teuton.  67 


exactly  represents  the  stage  of  development  which 
was  thus  reached,  but  the  Saxon  and  Anglian  king- 
doms which  were  set  up  in  our  own  land — Wessex, 
Mercia,  Northumbria — will  convey  the  true  idea  of 
it  to  our  minds  better  than  an  elaborate  description. 

Kingship  and  a  tendency  towards  unification  went  Kingship 
hand  in  hand  in  the  history  of  the  German  races.  and 

tendency 

And  not  in  that  history  alone :  we  may  safely  towards 
illustrate  the  tendency  of  the  kingly  office  among  unification 
the  Germans  by  what  we  read  in  the  Old  Testament  getjierm 
of  the  election  of  Saul.  The  Twelve  Tribes  of 
Israel,  conscious  that  they  were  losing  national 
unity  and  were  in  danger  of  being  absorbed  by  the 
great  monarchies  on  their  borders,  elected  Saul  to 
be  their  king,  and  his  very  first  act  of  kingship 
was  the  deliverance  of  the  outlying  settlement  of 
Jabesh-gilead  from  the  destruction  with  which  it  was 
threatened  by  Nahash,  King  of  the  Ammonites.  In 
our  own  days  we  have  seen  the  aspirations  of  the 
Germans  after  national  unity,  aspirations  which 
seemed  for  centuries  doomed  to  hopeless  failure, 
at  length  successful ;  and  the  visible  token  of  their 
success  and  of  that  victory  over  their  foes  which  unity 
made  possible,  was  the  crowning  of  the  Emperor 
William  by  a  host  of  kings,  dukes  and  generals  \ 
in  the  palace  of  Versailles.  We  must  not  press  the 
conclusion  too  far,  since  the  history  both  of  Rome  and 
of  the  United  States  of  America  shows  that  a  Republic 
can  found  a  great  dominion  and  defend  the  oneness 

1  Compare  the  '  Turba  regum  diversarumque  nationum  ductores  ' 
of  Jordanes,  De  Reb.  Get.  xxxviii. 

F  2 


63 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[ii. 


of  a  nation  :  but  for  the  German  peoples,  properly 
so  called,  I  think  we  may  safely  say  Monarchy  has 
meant  Unity,  and  Unity  has  meant  Monarchy. 
Character      Far  other,  however,  than  the  languid  despot  upon 
of  the        tne  sanctity  of  whose  presence-chamber  we  intruded 

kingly  office  t  ... 

among  the  in  the  beginning  of  this  lecture,  was  the  King  of  the 
Germans.  Goths  or  the  Alamanni.  Whether  himself  the  son 
of  a  king  or  not,  it  was  necessary  that  he  should  be 
of  noble  birth  \  and  he  had  therefore  probably  been 
reared  in  a  house,  rude  but  somewhat  larger  than 
the  ordinary  freeman's  dwelling,  built  by  the  side  of 
a  fountain  or  near  a  sacred  grove,  at  some  little 
distance  from  the  village  settlement2.  But  his  life  had 
been  passed  in  the  active  exercises  of  war  and  the 
chase  :  and  before  he  was  chosen  king  of  a  great  and 
important  civitas  he  had  probably  given  some  proof 
of  valour  and  ability,  to  cause  him  to  be  singled  out 
from  the  ranks  of  nobles,  each  of  whom  was  a  chief 
in  his  own  canton.  Even  after  his  election  as  king, 
his  power  was  by  no  means  unlimited.  He  might 
not  bind  nor  strike  any  one  of  the  free  German 
warriors  under  him.  Both  in  council  and  in  war  he 
had  so  much  authority  as  his  gifts  of  intellect,  of 
daring,  or  of  strength  enabled  him  to  acquire  and 

1  'Reges  ex  nobilitate,  duces  ex  virtute  sumunt'  (Tacitus,  Ger- 
mania  vii). 

2  '  Colunt  discreti  ac  diversi,  ut  fons,  ut  campus,  ut  nemus  placuit ' 
(ibid.  xvi).  It  seems  very  likely,  as  suggested  by  Seebohm  (English 
Village  Community,  p.  339),  that  this  describes  rather  the  settlement 
of  the  chiefs  than  of  the  commonalty.  This  must  be  stated,  however, 
as  a  mere  conjecture,  as  there  is  nothing  in  the  language  of  Tacitus 
on  which  to  found  it. 


ii.]  The  Roman  and  the  Teuton.  69 


retain,  and  not  much  more  \  And  when  thus  elected 
he  had  no  absolute  right  to  transmit  his  crown  to  his 
first-born,  nor  indeed  to  any  of  his  sons.  Doubtless 
the  eldest  son  of  a  recently  deceased  king,  if  himself 
a  man  of  capacity  and  valour,  had  always  a  good 
chance  of  being  chosen  to  succeed  him,  but  that  was 
all.  Gradually  as  the  nation  and  its  royal  race  grew 
accustomed  to  one  another,  and  especially  when  the 
kings  of  that  race  had  often  led  the  nation  to  victory, 

1  The  story  of  Clovis  and  the  vase  of  Soissons,  though  almost 
worn  threadbare  by  frequent  repetition,  may  be  quoted  as  an  illus- 
tration of  the  nature  of  the  power  of  a  German  king,  strictly  limited 
in  peace,  but  tending  to  become  absolute  in  war.  Clovis  wished  to 
gratify  the  Bishop  of  Rheims  by  restoring  to  him  a  vase  which  the 
spoilers  had  taken  from  his  church.  When  the  army  were  all 
mustered  at  Soissons  with  the  heap  of  plunder  before  them,  he 
accordingly  asked  that  this  vase  might  be  allotted  to  him  over  and 
above  his  regular  share  of  the  spoil.  '  Glorious  king,'  said  the 
loyal  soldiers,  '  we  and  all  that  we  have  are  thine,  neither  can  any 
one  resist  thy  power.'  But  one  of  the  warriors — '  envious  and  fickle,' 
says  the  historian,  perhaps  in  his  heart  resenting  the  adulation  of 
his  comrades — lifted  up  his  battle-axe  and  smote  upon  the  vase, 
saying,  '  Nothing  shalt  thou  carry  away  from  hence  except  what 
a  fair  lot  give  thee.'  The  vase  was  apparently  defaced,  not  broken, 
and  the  king  concealing  his  annoyance  handed  it  to  the  bishop's 
messenger.  At  the  year's  end,  when  all  the  warriors  were  assembled 
in  the  Campus  Martius  to  show  the  brightness  of  their  arms,  the 
king,  going  the  round  of  his  troops,  came  to  the  striker  of  the  vase. 
'  No  one,'  said  he,  '  keeps  his  arms  in  such  a  dirty  state  as  thou 
dost :  neither  thy  spear,  nor  thy  shield,  nor  thy  battle-axe  is  fit  to  be 
seen,'  and  therewith  he  wrested  the  battle-axe  from  his  hand  and 
threw  it  to  the  ground.  As  the  man  stooped  to  pick  it  up  the  king 
raised  his  hand  on  high,  and  drove  his  own  battle-axe  deep  into  the 
warrior's  skull,  shouting,  '  Thus  at  Soissons  didst  thou  do  to  that 
vase.'  Thereupon  he  ordered  all  the  other  warriors  to  file  off  from 
the  field,  their  hearts  being  filled  with  a  salutary  dread  of  his  power. 


70 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


the  feeling  grew  stronger  and  stronger  that  out  of 
that  race  only  the  nation  ought  to  choose  its  kings. 
Thus  were  the  Amals  looked  upon  as  the  natural 
kingly  race  of  the  Ostrogoths,  the  Merwings  of  the 
Franks,  the  Asdings  of  the  Vandals.  But  still  there 
was  no  strict  hereditary  right,  and  the  nation  on  the 
death  of  its  king  exercised  its  power  of  choice  often 
in  utter  defiance  of  the  rule  of  primogeniture. 
Meeting  of     The  choice  of  the  ruler,  the  decision  as  to  war 

the  mem-  , ,  c      c  i  i 

hers  of  the  or  Peace>  the  enactment  01  a  lew  very  simple  laws, 
Civitas.  these  formed  the  chief  business  of  the  assembly  of 
the  civitas,  which  was  called  probably  by  some  name 
like  our  own  Anglo-Saxon  Folc-gemot  or  Folcs- 
thing.  Tacitus  gives  us  a  concise  but  vivid  picture 
of  the  proceedings  of  one  of  these  national  as- 
semblies. The  gemots-men  indicated  their  deep- 
seated  love  of  liberty  by  the  unpunctuality  of  their 
attendance.  Two  days,  and  sometimes  three,  would 
elapse  before  a  sufficient  number  had  arrived  to 
enable  them  to  commence  their  proceedings.  Then, 
when  the  crowd  was  in  the  humour  for  beginning, 
they  sat  down  on  the  ground,  all  arrayed  in  their 
armour.  The  priests  called  for  silence,  and  upon 
them  rested  the  duty  of  maintaining  order  during 
the  deliberations  of  the  assembly1.    Then  the  king 

1  In  this  connection  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  an  inscription 
has  recently  been  discovered  at  the  Roman  Camp  of  Borcovicus 
in  Northumberland,  which  commences  '  Deo  Marti  Thincso.'  The 
persons  who  thus  record  the  dedication  of  their  altar  to  the  god 
Mars  Thincsus  are  said  to  be  <  Gtrmani  Cives  Tuihanti.'  Dr. 
Hubner,  one  of  the  greatest  authorities  on  Roman  epigraphy,  believes 
that  '  Mars  Thincsus '  is  the  Teutonic  god  Tiu,  and  that  his  epithet 


II.] 


The  Roman  and  the  Teuton. 


7i 


or  chief  whose  age,  or  eloquence,  or  noble  birth 
gave  him  the  right  of  pre-audience,  addressed  the 
assembly,  and  afterwards  each  in  his  turn  according 
to  the  same  blended  qualifications.  All  the  speakers 
sought  rather  to  persuade  than  to  command.  An 
unpopular  proposal  was  drowned  in  murmurs  of 
disapproval,  while  eagerly  brandished  lances  tes- 
tified the  applause  and  the  agreement  of  the  as- 
sembly. 

In  these  assemblies  an  accusation  might  be  brought  Judicial 
against  a  man  who  was  suspected  of  treason  against  P°™er  °f 

°  .  .  the  popular 

the  nation's  life,  and  if  the  charge  were  pushed  home,  assembly. 
a  capital  sentence  was  pronounced  upon  the  offender. 
Betrayers  and  deserters  were  hanged  from  a  tree ;  the 
mere  coward  and  fugitive,  the  man  whom  our  Saxon 
forefathers  would  have  called  a  nithing,  was  plunged 
deep  in  mud  and  covered  with  a  hurdle  to  prevent 
his  struggling  back  to  life — a  mode  of  punishment 
which  reminds  one  of  some  scenes  in  Dante's  In- 
ferno. 

Probably,  however,  it  was  neither  the  legislative  Election  of 
nor  the  judicial,  but  the  elective  aspect  of  these  16  Ulg' 
national  councils  which  was  the  most  important. 
The  chiefs,  or  elders,  or  judges,  or  by  whatever 
name  they  were  called,  the  men  whose  business  it 
was  to  administer  a  rude  justice  in  the  cantons  and 
the  villages,  were  chosen  in  the  national  council1. 

means  that  the  national  Thing  or  Council  was  held  under  his 
guardianship.    (See  Archaeologia  Aeliana,  x.  154-159,) 

1  '  Eliguntur  in  iisdem  conciliis  et  principes,  qui  jura  per  pagos 
vicosque  reddunt'  (Tacitus,  Germania  xii). 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[ii. 


And  the  highest  act  of  the  nation's  great  assize  was 
performed  when  the  chief  who  was  to  repel  the 
eagles  of  Rome,  to  lead  the  people  across  the  frozen 
Danube,  or  to  swoop  upon  the  wealthy-  plains  of 
Gaul,  was  solemnly  chosen  king.  The  clashing  arms 
testified  the  nation's  assent  to  his  nomination.  Six 
strong  warriors  slowly  upheaved  the  shield  on  which 
stood  the  newly-chosen  one,  and  shouts  of  'Thiu- 
dans  !  Thiudans 1 ! '  proclaimed  to  the  echoing  hills 
that  the  nation  had  once  more  a  king.  Thus  was 
he  singled  out  from  his  fellows  who  was  to  conduct 
the  people's  quarrel  with  the  far-off,  mysterious, 
Imperator  of  Rome. 

1  Thiudans  is  the  Gothic  word  for  '  King. ' 


LECTURE  III. 


The  Coming  of  the  Huns. 


Having  thus  given  a  cursory  glance  at  the  politi- 
cal and  social  condition  of  the  Roman  Empire  and 
its  German  neighbours  in  the  fourth  century  after 
Christ,  let  us  now  even  more  briefly  survey  the 
ethnological  aspect  of  the  barbarian  world  on  its 
northern  frontier  at  the  same  time. 

Of  the  three  great  groups  into  which  the  non- 
Latin  nations  of  Europe  are  at  this  day  divided, 
Celtic,  Teutonic,  and  Slavonic,  the  Teutonic  alone 
here  claims  our  especial  attention.    The  Celtic  na-  Celtic  na- 
tionality  had  been  beaten  down  in  ten  years  o{twns- 
battle  by  Julius  Caesar,  and  its  last  hope  of  offering 
a  successful   resistance  to   Rome  vanished  when 
Suetonius  Paulinus  crossed  the  straits  of  Menai 
and  put  the  Druids  to  the  sword  in  their  hitherto  in- 
violable island  of  Mona.    The  Slavonic  group  of  Slavonic 
nations,  which  now  fills  Russia  and  Poland,  forms  natwns- 
half  the  population  of  Austria  and  is  founding  new 
kingdoms   and   principalities   in   what  was  lately 
Turkey  in  Europe,  had  not  then  come  fully  on  the 
stage  of  history.    The  vague  term  Sarmatians,  used 
by  Roman  geographers,  is  probably  the  best  indica- 


74 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[in. 


tion  that  we  have  of  their  presence  in  Europe,  but 
few  ethnological  questions  are  harder  than  to  define 
the  ever-shifting  boundary  which  separated  them 
from  their  Teutonic  neighbours.    It  is  very  possible 
that  many  of  the  barbarian  hosts  that  warred  on 
Rome  may  have  consisted  of  Slavonic  marauders 
led  on  by  Teutonic  chieftains :  but  just  because  the 
initiative  at  any  rate  belonged  to  the  Teutons,  and 
because  the  Slaves  originated  so  few  expeditions 
against  the  Empire,  we  may  practically  leave  them 
out  of  the  question  and  consider  only  the  great 
Teutonic  population  which,  all  round  the  northern 
frontier  of  the  Empire,  from  the  mouth  of  the  Rhine 
to  the  mouth  of  the  Danube,  faced  the  Masters  of 
the  Soldiery  and  their  Legions. 
Tendency       There  had  been  a  marked  tendency  during  the 
°{onicna™~  tn*rc*  century  after  Christ  in  the  barbarian  nations 
Hons  to      to  merge  themselves  into  a  few  great  confederacies, 
form  con-    a  tenc|ency  wnich  possibly  had  something  to  do  with 

federacies.  j  sr  j  o 

the  ill-success  of  the  Roman  arms  during  that  period. 
A  whole  string  of  names  of  petty  tribes  on  the  lower 
Rhine,  mentioned  to  us  by  Tacitus,  disappears  in 

Franks.  order  to  form  the  nation  of  the  Franks.  In  like 
manner  the  tribes  which  dwelt  on  the  Main  and  the 
Neckar  clustered  together  into  the  confederation  of 

Alamanni.  the  Alamanni.  On  the  Middle  Danube  the  great 
nation  of  the  Marcomanni,  who  once  pressed  Marcus 
Aurelius  hard,  disappeared,  and  no  one  nation  of 
pre-eminent  power  arose  in  its  place ;  but  when  we 
come  towards  the  mouth  of  the  Danube,  to  the 
countries  which  are  now  known  as  Roumania,  Tran- 


III.] 


The  Coming  of  the  Huns. 


75 


sylvania,  and  Bessarabia,  we  find  them  occupied  by 
the  great  and  powerful  confederacy  of  the  Goths.  Goths. 
This  race,  of  pure  Teutonic  origin,  belonging  to  that 
which  is  called  the  Low-German  family  of  peoples, 
and  speaking  a  language  much  more  akin  to  Low- 
land Scotch  than  to  the  modern  German  of  Hanover, 
had  migrated,  probably  in  the  second  century  of  our 
era,  from  the  district  now  known  as  East  Prussia  in 
the  south-east  corner  of  the  Baltic.  They  had  spread 
themselves  along  the  northern  shore  of  the  Euxine, 
near  the  mouths  of  the  Dnieper  and  the  Dniester, 
and  after  a  series  of  piratical  expeditions  by  sea  and 
marauding  inroads  by  land  upon  the  Eastern  half  of 
the  Empire,  had  occupied  without  further  opposition 
the  Roman  province  of  Dacia,  constituted  by  Trajan 
in  the  early  part  of  the  second  century.  During  the 
century  before  our  narrative  begins,  they  had  been 
dwelling  for  the  most  part  as  friendly  and  peaceable 
neighbours  of  Rome.  They  had  become  gradually 
divided  into  two  great  groups  of  peoples,  the  Eastern 
and  Western  Goths,  who  eventually  became  known 
as  the  Ostrogoths  and  Visigoths. 

A  hard  and  undeserved  fate,  as  well  as  an  un-  Associa- 
merited  glory,  has  come  upon  the  possessors  of  the  ^^J^^ 
Gothic  name.    The  glory  is  that  of  having  given  the  term 
their  name  to  the  most  solemn  and  impressive  order  Gothu- 
of  architecture  that  the  world  has  ever  seen.  Men 
speak,  and  doubtless  will  ever  continue  to  speak,  of 
Gothic  buildings,  though  the  last  traces  of  Gothic 
nationality  had  expired  many  centuries  before  a 
pointed  arch  was  seen  at  Canterbury  or  Notre  Dame. 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[ill. 


On  the  other  hand  the  expression  *  What  a  Goth  ! ' 
as  indicative  of  rudeness  and  lack  of  culture,  is  con- 
stantly used  by  the  descendants  of  men  who  were 
centuries  behind  the  Goths  in  refinement  and  civili- 
sation, and  who  do  not  know  that  'What  a  Frank !' 
or  'What  a  Saxon  !'  would  be  far  nearer  to  historic 
truth.  In  point  of  fact,  of  all  the  Teutonic  races 
none  showed  so  early  an  appreciation  of  what  was 
best  in  Roman  civilisation  as  the  Gothic,  none 
showed  a  greater  power  of  assimilating  that  civilisa- 
tion, and  none,  had  its  career  not  been  prematurely 
cut  short,  would  more  happily  for  Europe  have 
blended  the  old  with  the  new  by  uniting  the  culture 
and  refinement  of  '  Romania '  with  the  rough  energy 
and  freedom  of  '  Barbaricum.' 
The  Visi-  At  the  particular  period  which  we  have  reached 
goths  and  ^iese  remarks  apply  rather  to  the  Visigoth  than  to 

the  Empire.  rr  J  0 

the  Ostrogoth.  While  the  Ostrogoths,  wandering 
wide  over  the  vast  plains  of  Southern  Russia,  were 
coming  in  contact  with  and  subduing  the  dim  Sla- 
vonic peoples  of  the  interior,  and  thus  building  up 
Circa  for  their  great  king,  Hermanric,  a  vast  but  ill-con- 
350-376.  solidated  empire  which  his  flatterers— those  of  them 
at  least  who  had  some  slight  knowledge  of  classical 
history — compared  to  that  of  Alexander  the  Great, 
the  Visigoths  dwelling  in  Transylvania  and  Walla- 
chia,  and  acknowledging  perhaps  in  a  general  way 
the  suzerainty  of  Hermanric,  but  under  the  especial 
rule  of  their  own  native  chieftains  who  bore  the 
subordinate  title  of  Judges,  were  continually  coming 
more  and  more  under  the  influence  of  the  Empire. 


in.]  The  Coming  of  the  Huns. 


77 


Latin  and  Greek  words  were  creeping  into  their 
language.  The  soldier  talked  of  his  pay  as  mizdo 
(evidently  the  same  word  as  the  Greek  fu<r66s),  and 
of  his  rations  as  anno  (probably  the  Latin  annond). 
The  alewa  displayed  to  the  grateful  husbandman  the 
fatness  of  the  olive-tree,  and  he  carried  home  its 
produce  in  a  sakkus. 

Not  only  words  like  these  and  a  knowledge  of  the  Ulfdasand 
arts  of  civilised  life,  but  more  far-reaching  thoughts, 
those  which  overleap  the  grave  and  bind  together  in 
one  all  the  generations  of  the  family  of  God,  were 
vibrating  through  the  Visigothic  brain.  Ulfilas,  the 
great  Apostle  of  the  Goths,  himself  a  Goth,  but 
resident  in  early  manhood  at  Constantinople,  began 
his  missionary  career  in  341,  and  continued  it  for 
forty  years,  labouring  during  all  that  time  by  his 
tongue  and  pen  at  the  conversion  of  his  countrymen 
to  Christianity.  As  an  instrument  in  this  great  work 
he  translated  the  Bible  into  Gothic,  only  omitting, 
according  to  the  well-known  story,  the  books  of 
Samuel  and  Kings,  'inasmuch  as  they  contain  the 
story  of  the  wars,  and  the  Gothic  race  was  already 
fond  enough  of  war,  and  needed  rather  a  bit  to  hold 
it  back  from  battle,  than  any  spur  to  urge  it  there- 
unto.' This  Gothic  Bible  is  a  priceless  possession 
for  the  philologist,  being  by  far  the  earliest  monu- 
ment of  any  Teutonic  language,  and  illustrating  in  a 
countless  variety  of  ways,  both  the  distant  relation- 
ship which  connects  our  family  of  languages  with 
Sanskrit,  Greek,  and  Latin,  and  the  points  at  which 
the  members  of  our  own  family,  German,  Danish, 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[in. 


348~37°-    Dutch,   English,  have  parted  company  one  from 
another. 

Persecution  The  success  of  Ulfllas  in  Christianising  the  Goths 
Christians  was  so  Sreat  tnat  a  persecution  arose,  under  the 
stress  of  which  many  of  his  converts  determined  to 
leave  their  homes  and  seek  shelter  in  the  dominions 
of  the  great  Christian  Emperor.  This  happened 
about  the  year  348.  The  emigrants,  with  Ulfilas  at 
their  head,  'a  second  Moses,'  as  he  was  often  styled 
by  his  contemporaries,  crossed  the  Danube  and 
founded  a  settlement  in  the  country  about  Nicopolis, 
on  the  northern  slopes  of  the  Balkans.  Here  their 
descendants  were  still  living  after  the  lapse  of  nearly 
two  centuries1,  being  known  by  the  name  of  the 
Lesser  Goths,  '  a  numerous  people,  but  poor  and 
unwarlike,  having  no  abundance  of  anything,  save 
cattle  of  divers  kinds,  sheep  and  pastures  and 
forests  ;  having  no  wheat,  though  the  soil  is  fertile 
in  other  crops.  Vineyards  they  do  not  possess,  but 
some  of  them  as  merchants  buy  wine  from  the  neigh- 
bouring district :  but  most  of  them  are  nourished  on 
milk/ 

Probably  Ulfilas  did  not  remain  constantly  with 
his  Lesser  Goths  in  Moesia,  but  often  crossed  the 
Danube  into  Dacia,  to  strengthen  the  faith  of  his 
remaining  converts  there,  or  to  add  to  their  number. 
Apparently  a  second  persecution  broke  out  (if,  in- 
deed, it  had  ever  ceased  to  rage)  about  370.  From 
a  fragment  of  a  Gothic  calendar  we  learn  that  the 
23rd  October  was  dedicated  '  to  the  remembrance  of 
1  In  552,  see  Jordanes  li. 


III.] 


The  Coming  of  the  Huns. 


79 


many  martyrs  among  the  Gothic  people,  and  of  37°-375- 
Frederic  '  (doubtless  one  of  the  heroes  of  the  perse- 
cution), and  that  the  29th  was  similarly  dedicated  'to 
the  remembrance  of  the  martyrs  who  remained,  with 
Priest  Vereka  and  Batvin,  members  of  the  Catholic 
Church,  and  were  burned  among  the  Gothic  people/ 

The  leader  of  the  persecuting  party  at  this  time  Athanaric 
was  Judge  Athanaric,  a  stern,  unbending  Gothic ^f^°^e 
chief,  who  would  brook  no  compromise  with  Rome 
or  Roman  ways,  who  had  sworn  a  terrible  oath  that 
he  would  never  set  foot  on  Roman  soil,  and  who 
now,  to  the  cruel  utmost  of  his  power,  strove  to  pre- 
vent Odin  and  Thunnor  from  being  driven  out  of 
the  Home  of  Gods  by  the  Nazarene,  whose  cross 
glittered  upon  the  banners  of  Rome. 

On  the  opposite  side,  as  leader  of  that  section  of  Fritigem. 
the  Visigoths  which  favoured  the  Roman  civilisation 
and  the  Christian  religion,  appears  the  gallant  Friti- 
gern,  one  of  the  most  attractive  figures  whom  Gothic 
history  presents  to  us.  The  contention  between 
him  and  the  bigoted  old  Gothic  party  under  Athan- 
aric was  so  sharp  that  it  seems  to  have  broken  out 
into  actual  war,  in  which,  as  one  author1  tells  us, 
Fritigern,  on  formally  announcing  his  conversion  to 
Christianity,  asked  and  received  the  help  of  the 
Roman  Emperor  against  his  rival. 

Such,  then,  was  the  relation  of  '  Barbaricum '  Outlook  in 
towards  1  Romania '  about  the  year  375.  Reading  (as  3^5" 
we  are  too  apt  to  do)  our  knowledge  of  subsequent 
events  into  the  history  of  that  year,  when  the  fourth 

1  Socrates,  iv.  33. 


8o 


Dynasty  of  Theodosins. 


[nr. 


375.  century  of  our  era  had  reached  its  fourth  quarter,  it  is 
easy  to  imagine  the  Roman  Empire  lying  rich  and  de- 
fenceless, at  the  mercy  of  barbarian  foes  all  round  its 
border  and  all  athirst  to  devour  it.  But  such  was  cer- 
tainly not  the  aspect  which  it  then  wore  to  its  contem- 
poraries. The  keen  eye  of  a  statesman,  if  he  were 
also  possessed  of  fine  ethical  instincts,  might  un- 
doubtedly perceive  many  dangerous  symptoms  of 
moral  and  spiritual  decay,  from  which  he  might 
forebode  its  future  downfall ;  but  to  the  ordinary 
observer,  especially  to  the  ordinary  barbarian  ob- 
server, seldom  had  the  great  fabric  of  Roman  civilisa- 
tion seemed  stronger  or  more  imposing.  Of  anything 
like  a  combined  attack  of  the  barbarian  hordes  upon 
the  Roman  frontier,  no  barbarian  dreamed.  A  petty 
raid  here  or  there  might  perhaps  be  successfully 
executed,  and  might  enable  its  perpetrator  to  return 
with  some  cattle  from  a  few  Moesian  farms,  or  some 
bracelets  and  golden  chains  from  a  sacked  Illyrian 
town.  But  this  was  the  height  of  his  ambition  as 
Rome's  enemy.  He  would  much  rather  be  Rome's 
friend  :  enter  her  service  as  a  leader  of  foederati1 ; 
mount  guard  in  the  ante-chamber  of  the  Emperor; 
direct  the  arms  of  Rome  against  some  hated  rival 
chief  ;  perhaps,  even — supreme  felicity — attain  in 
his  well-fed  and  corpulent  old  age  to  the  overwhelm- 
ing honour  of  a  Roman  consulship. 

Sudden  ap-  The  appearance  on  the  northern  shore  of  the  Sea 
^heHunf  °f  Azof  °^  a  nor<^e  of  squalid  savages  from  the  steppes 

1  Gothic  Irregulars. 


III.] 


The  Coming  of  the  Huns. 


81 


of  Central  Asia,  each  riding  a  little  pony  as  ugly  and  374- 
as  unkempt  as  himself,  changed  the  whole  current  of 
men's  thoughts,  and  was  the  first  visible  link  in  the 
chain  which  drew  mediaeval  Europe,  the  Europe  of 
Charlemagne,  Barbarossa,  and  Dante, 

'  forth  from  the  abyss  of  things  that  were  to  be.' 

These  savages  were  the  terrible  Huns,  of  whose 
history  I  shall  have  to  speak  somewhat  more  in 
detail  in  my  sixth  lecture.  For  the  present  it  will 
be  enough  to  quote  a  chapter  from  the  work  of  the 
Gothic  historian  Jordanes,  in  order  to  show  how  the 
Asiatic  intruders  were  looked  upon  by  the  first  Eu- 
ropean nation  with  whom  they  came  in  contact  \ 

'  After  no  great  interval  of  time  the  nations  of  the  Descrip- 
Huns,  more  cruel  than  Ferocity  itself,  flamed  forth  h^{^e 
against  the  Goths.    An  unhallowed  union  between  jordanes. 
unclean  spirits  wandering  through  the  wilderness, 
and  certain  Gothic  women  expelled  [centuries  before] 
for  witchcraft  from  the  tents  of  their  countrymen, 
gave  birth  to  this  most  ferocious  people,  which  dwelt 
at  first  among  the  marshes — small,  foul,  and  skinny, 
hardly  human,  but  spoken  of  as  men  because  they 
possessed  something  which  distantly  resembled  hu- 
man speech.    This  wild  race  formerly  dwelt  on  the 
further  shore  of  the  Sea  of  Azof,  and  there  practised 
no  other  labour  than  hunting,  except  that  after  they 
had  grown  into  a  great  people  they  harried  the  neigh- 
bouring nations  with  constant  robberies  and  frauds. 
Now  when  the  huntsmen  of  this  people  were,  ac- 
cording to  their  custom,  pursuing  the  chase  on  the 
1  Jordanes,  De  Rebus  Geticis  xxiv. 
G 


82 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[in. 


further  shore  of  Azof,  behold,  upon  a  sudden,  a  female 
stag  presented  herself  to  their  view,  and  stepping 
into  the  pool,  first  going  forth  and  then  stopping, 
seemed  to  offer  herself  as  guide  of  their  journey. 
Following  her  lead,  therefore,  the  huntsmen  passed 
over  on  foot  through  the  Sea  of  Azof,  which  they  had 
before  thought  to  be  as  impassable  as  the  ocean. 
Soon,  too,  when  the  Gothic  shore  loomed  up  before 
those  unknown  visitors,  the  stag  disappeared.  This, 
I  trow,  was  done  by  those  spirits  to  whom  the  Huns 
owed  their  origin,  in  order  to  spite  the  Gothic  people. 
The  huntsmen  who  had  before  thought  that  there 
was  no  other  world  beyond  the  Sea  of  Azof,  were 
stricken  with  admiration  of  the  Gothic  land,  the  road 
to  which,  hitherto  unknown,  they  deemed  had  been 
shown  to  them  by  the  gods,  and  going  back  to  their 
own  people,  persuaded  them  to  hasten  by  the  path 
which  the  stag  had  pointed  out  to  them  into  the  ter- 
ritory of  the  Goths.  All  whom  they  met  on  the  way 
fell  victims  to  their  fury,  and  as  soon  as  they  had 
crossed  that  vast  pool,  five  nations  [whose  uncouth 
names  I  need  not  transcribe]  were  swept  away  by 
that  whirlwind  of  savage  tribes.  The  Alans  also, 
who  were  a  match  for  them  in  war,  but  very  un- 
like them  in  civilisation,  in  appearance,  and  in  diet, 
were  wearied  out  by  them  in  incessant  fighting,  and 
at  length  subdued.  For  those  whom  they  would 
perhaps  never  have  conquered  in  fair  fight  they 
put  to  flight  by  the  terribleness  of  their  appearance, 
throwing  the  utmost  possible  hideousness  into  the 
expression  of  their  faces,  which  were  naturally  of 


III.] 


The  Coming  of  the  Huns. 


83 


a  frightful  blackness,  and  resembled,  if  I  may  say  so,  374. 
a  shapeless  lump  of  dough  rather  than  a  face,  having 
two  black  points  in  them  instead  of  eyes.  This 
scowling  countenance  reveals  the  boldness  [?  cru- 
elty] of  their  hearts,  who  rage  against  their  new- 
born offspring  even  on  the  first  day  of  their  birth, 
for  all  the  male  children's  cheeks  are  gashed  by  them 
with  an  iron  tool,  in  order  that  before  they  begin  to 
receive  the  nourishment  of  their  mother's  milk  they 
may  learn  to  bear  the  pain  of  a  wound.  Hence 
their  youth  lacks  the  beauty,  and  their  old  age  the 
dignity  of  a  beard,  because  their  faces,  furrowed  with 
iron,  lose  through  scars  the  seasonable  beauty  of 
hair.  They  are  little  in  stature,  but  nimble  and  clever 
in  their  movements,  and  especially  ready  in  horse- 
manship :  with  broad  shoulders,  arms  well  adapted 
to  the  use  of  the  bow,  necks  strong,  and  heads 
always  held  erect  with  pride.  In  short  these  people, 
wearing  the  shape  of  man,  practise  in  their  lives  the 
ferocity  of  beasts.' 

Through  the  uncouth  sentences  of  the  half- 
educated  Gothic  historian  the  general  character  of 
the  Hunnish  invaders  may  be  sufficiently  discerned. 
They  stood  on  a  distinctly  lower  grade  of  civilisation 
than  any  of  the  Teutonic  invaders  of  the  Empire. 
The  Goth,  the  Frank,  the  Alaman,  the  Vandal 
were  barbarians  indeed,  but  barbarians  with  some 
capacity  — in  the  case  of  the  Goth  with  an  extra- 
ordinary capacity— for  appreciating,  the  advantages 
of  civilisation.   The  Hun,  fresh  from  his  centuries  of 

G  2 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[in. 


374.  wandering  over  the  high  table-land  of  Tartary,  was 
an  utter,  an  irreclaimable  savage.  To  compare  them 
with  some  of  the  native  races  with  which  our  own 
has  recently  come  in  contact,  the  Goth  was  like  the 
Maori,  the  Hun  like  a  stronger  and  more  warlike 
Australian  savage. 
The  Huns  This  social  difference  between  the  Hun  and  the 
ranians ' "  Teuton  corresponds  to  a  deep  ethnological  chasm. 
not  Ar-  Hitherto  all  the  great  struggles  in  which  the  Euro- 
yans'  pean  nations  had  been  engaged  (except  the  Punic 
wars)  had  been  waged  between  members  of  the  great 
Aryan  family  of  nations.  Persian,  Greek,  Italian, 
Celt,  Teuton,  however  wide  their  divergences  of  re- 
ligion, of  culture,  of  intellectual  development,  were 
yet  all  children  of  the  same  family,  some  of  whom,  so 
to  speak,  had  come  of  age,  and  entered  into  their  in- 
heritance, while  others  were  still  in  a  state  of  infancy 
and  untaught  childhood.  But  the  Hun  had  no  such 
link  with  the  great  historic  peoples  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean Sea.  In  his  language  probably  no  germ  of 
affinity  with  Greek  or  Sanskrit  would  have  been  dis- 
cernible. Wheresoever  the  common  home  of  the 
Indo-European  peoples  may  eventually  be  located, 
it  is  certain  that  the  progenitors  of  the  Hun  never 
dwelt  there.  He  was  of  kin  to  the  Mongol,  the 
Calmuck,  the  Turk,  not  to  the  Roman  or  the  Eng- 
lishman. In  the  world's  history  he  stands  in  line 
with  Jenghiz  Khan,  with  Tamerlane,  with  Bajazet, 
not  with  Alexander  or  with  Caesar.  In  one  word — 
to  adopt  a  term  which,  however  inaccurate,  is  con- 
venient— he  was  not  Aryan,  but  Turanian. 


in.]  The  Coming  of  the  Huns. 


*5 


Such  then  were  the  invaders  from  Asia,  who,  about  374- 
the  year  374,  precipitated  themselves  upon  the  settle-  ^^T* 
ments  of  the  Ostrogoths  in  Southern  Russia.    What  cavalry. 
they  may  have  lacked  in  size  they  made  up  in  nimble- 
ness  of  movement,  and  against  the  Goths,  who  do  not 
appear  to  have  been  pre-eminently  an  equestrian 
people,  they  had  this  advantage,  that  every  man  of 
the  tribe  was  mounted,  and  mounted  on  a  hardy 
wiry  little  steed,  which  was  probably  satisfied  with 
the  roughest  food,  and  which  so  perfectly  understood 
its  rider's  wishes,  that  it  seemed  as  if  horse  and 
horseman  were  one  being. 

Details  as  to  the  conflict  between  the  Huns  and  Hermanric 
the  Ostrogoths  are  utterly  wanting,  but  it  is  clear  defeated- 
that  the  latter  were  completely  defeated.  Hermanric, 
'the  Ostrogothic  Alexander'  who  is  said  to  have 
reached  the  age  of  110,  in  his  rage  and  shame  put  an 
end  to  his  own  life.  His  wide  but  loosely  compacted 
empire  was  broken  up.  Some  Ostrogoths,  under 
a  prince  of  the  house  of  Hermanric,  moved  south- 
wards, and  took  part  in  the  events  which  we  are 
about  to  notice,  on  the  Danube.  But  the  larger  part 
of  the  nation  submitted  to  inevitable  necessity  and 
bowed  their  necks  to  the  yoke.  For  three  quarters 
of  a  century  the  Ostrogoths  formed  part  of  the  great 
Hunnish  Empire,  and  their  sovereigns,  descendants 
of  the  great  Hermanric,  ruled  as  vassals  of  the 
Hunnish  king. 

The  barbarian  flood  rolled  on  and  reached  the  Athanark 
river  Dniester  and  the   long  line  of  earthworks  defeated- 
which  apparently  separated  the  land  of  the  Visigoths 


86 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[in. 


375.  from  that  of  the  Ostrogoths1.  Here  Athanaric  had 
drawn  up  his  men,  expecting  a  regular  attack,  to 
which  he  would  have  been  prepared  with  a  regular 
reply.  Little  did  he  know  the  nature  of  the  nimble 
savages  with  whom  he  had  to  deal.  Having  learned 
from  their  scouts  where  the  bulk  of  the  Visigothic 
army  was  posted  (which  was  probably  by  the  rampart 
rather  than  by  the  river),  and  having  found  a  ford 
across  the  Dniester,  they  crossed  that  ford  by  moon- 
light and  fell  like  a  thunderbolt  on  the  flank  of  the 
unsuspecting  Athanaric.  He  was  stupefied  at  the 
assault,  he  saw  his  bravest  friends  slain,  and  he 
found  he  had  no  resource  but  flight.  Withdrawing 
to  the  Carpathians  he  began  to  construct  a  new  line 
of  defence,  partly  formed  by  those  mountains  and 
partly  by  the  river  Sereth.  He  would  have  had  but 
little  leisure  to  construct  this  new  stronghold,  had 
not  the  Huns  been  so  burdened  with  their  booty 
that  they  could  not  follow  him  in  haste. 
The  Visi-  And  now  that  the  strongest  Gothic  champions  had 
SrefugeCk  Deen  worsted,  dismay  and  despair  entered  the  hearts 
within  the  of  the  Visigoths.  To  share  the  hardships  of  a  life 
Empire.  jn  tjle  Carpathians  with  Athanaric  was  not  the  course 
which  commended  itself  to  the  majority.  They  looked 
across  the  broad  Danube  to  the  well-tilled  plains  of 
Moesia ;  they  thought  of  the  tightening  bond  which 
had  of  late  united  them  to  the  Empire ;  they  turned 
to  Fritigern,  the  steadfast  partisan  of  Rome,  and 
deemed  that  through  his  friendship  for  the  Emperor 

1  '  Vallis  Greuthungorum '   (Ammianus  xxxi.  3).  Greuthungi 
seems  to  have  been  another  name  for  the  Ostrogoths. 


in  ]  The  Coming  of  the  Huns. 


87 


they  might  find  a  refuge  from  the  storm.  Fritigern  376. 
(who,  with  a  perhaps  older  colleague,  Alavivus,  is 
always  spoken  of  as  leader  of  the  migration)  may 
perhaps,  through  Ulfilas,  have  opened  negotiations 
with  the  Imperial  Court,  negotiations  which  occupied 
many  weeks,  for  Valens,  the  reigning  Emperor,  was 
at  Antioch.  The  terms  which  Fritigern  offered  were 
that  the  Goths  would  all  enter  the  military  service 
of  the  Empire,  and  apparently  that  those  who  were 
still  heathens  would  embrace  the  Emperor's  creed, 
which  was  one  of  the  many  forms  of  Arian  Christianity. 
On  the  other  hand  there  must  have  been  some  stipu- 
lation as  to  the  supply  of  food,  at  least  for  one  season, 
to  give  the  new-comers  time  to  till  the  fields  for  a 
future  harvest. 

While  the  tedious  negotiations  were  going  forward,  The  Goths 
a  strange  sight  might  be  seen  on  that  Wallachian  shore 
shore  of  the  Danube,  where  Europe  beheld,  in  1877,  Danube. 
the  vast  host  of  the  Russians  manoeuvring  backwards 
and  forwards,  in  order  to  find  a  place  where  they 
might  cross  into  Bulgaria.    On  that  same  shore  in 
the  autumn  of  376  stood  200,000  Goths,  stretching 
out  their  hands  in  the  attitude  of  entreaty,  bewailing 
the  hard  fate  that  had  befallen  them,  and  shouting 
out,  whenever  a  Roman  official  came  within  hearing, 
their  eager  offers  of  fealty  to  the  Emperor. 

At  length  the  answer  came  from  Antioch.    Valens  Valens 
was  flattered  by  the  prospect  of  the  submission  of  so  §ives  thcm 

J         *       r  permission 

many  stalwart  warriors  ;  he  persuaded  himself  that  to  cross. 
by  enlisting  them  under  his  standards  he  might 
lighten  the  pressure  of  taxation  on  his  subjects ;  he 


88 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[in. 


perhaps  also  thought  that  in  the  battle  of  the  creeds 
which  was  still  being  waged,  the  adhesion  of  a  strong 
and  warlike  nation  to  his  own  Arian  form  of  faith 
would  secure  for  it  the  victory.  This  last  con- 
sideration, however,  which  is  all-important  on  the 
pages  of  the  ecclesiastical  historians,  was  probably 
only  a  secondary  one  in  the  minds  of  the  Emperor 
and  his  Council. 

Whatever  the  determining  cause  may  have  been, 
the  Imperial  orders  came  to  Lupicinus  the  Count  of 
Thrace,  and  Maximus  the  Duke  of  Moesia,  that  the 
refugees  were  to  be  admitted  into  the  Empire  on 
condition  that  they  gave  up  their  arms,  and  that  the 
boys  who  were  still  under  age  for  martial  service 
should  be  surrendered  as  hostages  to  be  quartered 
in  various  distant  cities  of  the  Empire.  Thus  the 
long  suspense  was  ended.  The  Visigoths,  who 
night  after  night  had  feared  to  see  the  Hunnish 
watch-fires  blazing  in  the  north  and  to  hear  the  dis- 
cordant battle-cry  of  the  Asiatics  sounding  in  their 
ears,  were  relieved  from  their  terrible  anxiety.  To 
have  to  part  with  their  gallant  sons  was  hard  :  to 
have  to  part  with  their  old  and  trusty  broadswords 
was  harder,  but  life  was  sweet.  There  was  the 
Moesian  shore  and  safety  under  the  shadow  of 
Rome,  and  here  were  the  sloops  ready  to  carry  them 
across  to  the  Promised  Land.  Night  and  day,  for 
several  days,  the  sloops  were  crossing  and  re-cross- 
ing, till  at  length  200,000  Gothic  warriors,  with  their 
wives,  and  children,  and  aged  parents,  stood  on  the 
soil  of  the  Empire.    They  stood  there,  not  unarmed. 


in.]  The  Coming  of  the  Huns.  89 


Already  they  had  made  their  first  experience  of  the  376. 
gigantic  corruption  of  the  Imperial  service.    Lupi-  f^^^M 
cinus  and  Maximus,  and  the  officers  under  them,  officials. 
avaricious  and  lustful  men,  while  superintending  the 
transport  of  the  Goths,  were  thinking  all  the  time 
how  to  fill  their  villas  with  precious  spoil  and  beau- 
tiful captives,  rather  than  how  to  obey  the  orders 
of  the  Emperor,    While  they  were  intent  on  the 
golden  torques,  the  linen  robes,  the  costly-fringed 
carpets  of  the  Goths,  they  allowed  the  broadswords 
and  the  hunting-knives  to  pass  unquestioned.  Al- 
ready before  the  disembarkation  was  well  over,  a 
bitter  sense  of  wrong,  and  consciousness  of  power 
to  avenge  that  wrong,  were  brooding  in  thousands 
of  Gothic  hearts. 

We  may  perhaps  say  of  the  reception  by  Valens 
of  the  Gothic  fugitives,  as  of  Elizabeth's  reception  of 
Mary  Queen  of  Scots,  that  either  the  request  for 
asylum  should  have  been  refused,  or,  if  granted,  it 
should  have  been  granted  generously.  There  was 
abundance  of  room  doubtless  in  the  solitary  spaces 
of  Moesia  for  200,000  sturdy  cultivators,  and  if  they 
had  been  wisely  and  fairly  treated  they  might  have 
formed  a  stout  barrier  against  all  other  barbarian 
invaders.  Who  can  say?  The  Roman  Empire 
might  be  standing  yet. 

'  Trojaque  nunc  staret,  Priamique  arx  alia  maneret.' 

But  now,  in  addition  to  the  grievance  of  their  trea- 
sures stolen,  came  the  far  sorer  grievance  of  food 
withheld.  The  promised  rations,  perhaps  partly 
from  incompetence  as  well  as  from  bad  faith,  were 


9° 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[in. 


not  forthcoming.  With  such  money  as  they  still 
possessed  the  unhappy  Goths  offered  to  buy  food  : 
Lupicinus  and  Maximus  bought  up  dogs  from  all 
the  districts  round  and  sold  their  flesh  to  the  starving 
immigrants  in  return  for  slaves,  among  whom  were 
some  of  the  sons  of  the  noblest  of  the  Goths,  driven 
to  barter  even  their  children  for  life.  Such  wicked- 
ness as  this,  thank  God,  does  not  often  miss  its 
reward  even  in  this  world. 

A  few  months,  however,  elapsed  before  the  storm 
of  vengeance  burst  forth.  Let  us  take  advantage  of 
that  short  interval  to  describe  the  characters  of  the 
rulers  of  the  Roman  State. 

For  eleven  years  (364-375)  after  the  death  of 
Julian  'the  Apostate'  and  his  short-lived  successor 
Jovian,  Valentinian's  strong  hand  was  at  the  Em- 
pire's helm.  A  blunt,  untutored  soldier,  with  a 
strange  dash  of  cruelt}'  in  his  nature,  he  was  never- 
theless a  good  ruler  for  those  times.  He  held  an 
even  balance  between  the  warring  Christian  sects, 
insisting  on  toleration  all  round ;  he  was  careful  not 
to  oppress  his  subjects  by  too  heavy  taxation  ;  he 
defended  them  from  the  barbarians,  and  he  repressed 
the  licentiousness  which  was  sapping  the  energies  of 
the  Empire.  The  worst  thing  that  he  did  for  his 
country  was  associating  his  brother  Valens  in  the 
throne,  giving  him  the  rule  over  the  East.  Both  in 
person  and  character  Valens  presented  a  striking 
contrast  to  his  brother.  Valentinian  was  strong  and 
well-shaped,  with  a  bright  complexion  and  clear  blue 
eye :  everything  about  him  told  of  energy  and  de- 


in.]  The  Coming  of  the  Huns. 


91 


cision.  Valens,  torpid  and  procrastinating,  with  376. 
muddy  complexion,  lack-lustre  eye,  bent  legs  and 
protuberant  belly,  neither  looked  nor  spoke  like  an 
Emperor  of  Rome.  And  over  against  Valentinian's 
inflexible  and  universal  religious  tolerance  had  to  be 
set  the  somewhat  bitter  Arianism  of  Valens. 

A  year  before  the  Hunnish  irruption  into  Europe  West, 
Valentinian  died,  leaving  his  brother  Valens  Em-  Gratian, 
peror  of  the  East,  and  his  two  sons,  Gratian  and  Vaienti 
Valentinian  II,  Emperors  of  the  West,  the  former  7iian  II, 
at  Trier,  the  latter  at  Milan.    Gratian  was  a  lad  full  375~392- 
of  noble  promise,  but  only  sixteen  years  of  age ; 
Valentinian  II  was  a  child  of  four,  under  the  re- 
gency of  his  mother,  Justina.    Decidedly  the  Im- 
perial partnership  was  weak,  ill-adapted   for  the 
strain  of  a  great  crisis,  and  what  made  it  get  weaker 
was  that  it  was  not  united.    The  dull  soul  of  the 
sluggish  Valens  was  jealous  of  his  brilliant  nephew, 
who  was  already  showing  military  aptitudes  and 
earning  the  devotion  of  his  troops.    Justina  also, 
who  was  the  second  wife  of  the  deceased  Emperor, 
looked  probably  with  no  friendly  eye  on  the  growing 
reputation  of  her  step-son.    The  Concordia  Angus- 
forum1,  which  was  so  often  celebrated  on  the  Im- 
perial medals,  was  not  strong  in  the  year  376. 

We  return  to  the  affairs  of  the  betrayed  and  The  ban- 
hunger-stricken  Goths.    There  was  as  yet  no  open  ^^j? 
insurrection,  but  Alavivus  and  Fritigern  were  march-  0pu 
ing  about  in  Moesia  in  a  way  which  seemed  to  in- 

1  Concord  Auggg.    (The  number  of  repetitions  of  the  letter  g 
indicates  the  number  of  Emperors.) 


cian- 


92 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[in. 


377-  dicate  independence  and  growing  suspicion ;  and, 
moreover,  some  of  the  bands  of  their  Ostrogothic 
cousins  had  taken  advantage  of  the  disorder  of  the 
times,  and  the  occupied  attention  of  the  Imperial 
soldiery,  to  cross  the  Danube  on  rafts  and  pitch 
their  camp  not  far  from  Fritigern's.  Before  long 
Alavivus  and  Fritigern  appeared  at  the  gates  of 
Marcianople  (the  modern  Shumla),  an  important 
city  at  the  intersection  of  two  great  cross-roads,  and 
commanding  a  pass  through  the  Balkans.  The  two 
Visigothic  chiefs  were  still  ostensibly  captains  of  the 
Emperor's  foederati}  and  Lupicinus,  Count  of  Thrace, 
bade  them  to  a  banquet.  The  barbarians  who  fol- 
lowed them  had  flocked  into  the  city  to  purchase 
provisions.  A  dispute  arose  between  them  and  the 
citizens  which  led  to  bloodshed,  and  the  news  of  the 
disturbance  reached  Lupicinus  when  he  was  re- 
clining at  the  luxurious  banquet,  flushed  with  wine 
and  scarcely  keeping  his  heavy  eyes  open  by  gazing 
at  the  performers  of  a  pantomime.  Languidly  he 
ordered  the  tall  young  Gothic  nobles  who  were 
keeping  guard  over  their  chief  at  the  door  of  the 
praetorium  to  be  hewn  down  by  the  far  more  nume- 
rous Roman  soldiery.  The  groans  of  the  dying,  and 
the  battle-shout  of  those  who  were  yet  fighting  for 
their  lives,  penetrated  the  innermost  chambers  of 
the  palace,  and  aroused  Fritigern  from  the  pleasures 
of  the  dainty  repast.  If  his  host  sought  to  soothe 
him  by  alleging  that  it  was  only  a  drunken  brawl 
that  was  going  on  outside, 

'  his  soul  more  truly  knew  that  sound  too  well.' 


III.] 


The  Coming  of  the  Hans. 


93 


He  drew  his  sword  and  stalked  down  through  the  377. 
banquet  hall,  exclaiming  that  if  there  was  a  tumult 
among  the  Goths  he  alone  could  quell  it.  The 
pretext,  or  the  naked  sword,  secured  him  a  safe 
passage  through  the  trembling  ranks  of  the  ban- 
queters. He  was  received  with  a  shout  of  joy  by 
his  surviving  companions.  They  mounted  their 
horses  and  rode  out  of  the  gates  of  the  city ;  and 
now,  openly  declaring  war  against  the  Empire,  began 
to  plunder  and  to  burn  the  rich  farmsteads  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Marcianople.  Lupicinus  marched 
forth  to  meet  them  at  the  ninth  milestone  from  the 
city ;  but  his  troops,  hastily  collected,  were  badly 
led.  The  Goths,  in  their  fury  and  despair,  beat 
down  their  enemies.  All  the  tribunes  (commissioned 
officers)  and  the  larger  part  of  the  rank  and  file  were 
stretched  in  death  upon  the  plain.  The  base  Lupi- 
cinus, whose  cruelty  and  avarice  had  caused  the 
disaster,  escaped  from  this  battle-field,  but  before 
long  both  he  and  his  colleague  in  guilt,  Maximus, 
fell  victims  to  the  righteous  vengeance  of  the  Goths1. 

That  day,  that  fatal  day  of  the  banquet  at  Mar- 
cianople, '  took  away/  says  the  Gothic  historian,  'the 
hunger  of  the  Goths  and  the  security  of  the  Ro- 
mans ;  and  the  former  now  began,  not  as  strangers 
and  foreigners,  but  as  citizens  and  lords,  to  issue 
their  orders  to  the  cultivators  of  the  soil,  and  to  hold 
all  the  northern  regions  [from  the  Balkans]  to  the 
Danube  in  their  own  right.' 

1  Jordanes  xxvi :  '  Illico  in  ducum  Lupicini  et  Maximi  armantur 
occisionem? 


94 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[in. 


377-378-  The  war  thus  commenced  lasted,  with  varying 
Gothic       success,  through  the  years  377  and  378.    The  Em- 

IV ar. 

peror  Valens,  during  the  whole  of  the  former  year, 
remained  at  Antioch,  but  sent  two  officers  of  high 
rank,  but  of  no  great  military  skill,  to  conduct  the 
campaign  in  his  stead.  On  the  whole,  however,  the 
fortune  of  war  must  have  been  unfavourable  to  the 
Goths  (who  evidently  fought  with  more  fury  than 
science),  since  the  chief  battle  of  this  year  was 
377-  fought  at  a  place  called  Ad  Salices  (the  Willows),  as 
Ad^alfces.  far  nortn  as  tne  region  now  known  as  the  Dobrud- 
scha.  Our  chief  historian  1  (himself  long  an  officer 
of  rank  in  the  Imperial  army)  gives  a  striking  de- 
scription of  the  Gothic  warriors,  encamped  in  the 
centre  of  a  rampart  of  waggons,  and  revelling  in  the 
abundance  of  the  booty  which  they  had  carried  off 
from  the  wasted  plains  of  Thrace.  All  night  the 
two  armies  lay  encamped  near  to  one  another  in 
sleepless  suspense.  With  the  dawn  of  day  the  bar- 
barians made  an  attempt  to  reach  some  higher 
ground,  from  whence  they  might  rush  down  on  the 
enemy ;  but  this  manoeuvre  was  checked  by  a  well- 
executed  counter-movement  of  the  legions.  As  both 
armies  halted  and  gazed  at  one  another  with  scowl- 
ing faces,  the  Romans  raised  their  martial  song 
(itself  borrowed  from  other  barbarians),  which  was 
known  as  the  barritus,  and  which,  beginning  in  a 
low  bass  key,  rose,  as  it  were,  by  steps  to  a  shrill 
and  exultant  treble.  The  barbarians  answered  by 
the  old  war-songs  (discordant  in  Roman  ears,  but 
1  Ammianus. 


III.] 


The  Coming  of  the  Huns. 


95 


in  which  our  Saxon  forefathers  would  probably  have  377~378- 
found  familiar  music),  wherein  they  sang  the  praises 
of  their  glorious  ancestors,  sprung  from  the  seed  of 
gods,  and  dear  to  Odin. 

Then  the  battle  was  joined,  and  the  marshy  willow- 
intersected  plain  was  seen  covered  with  every  phase 
of  human  agony ;  but  all  was  din  and  confusion, 
and  if  any  well-concerted  plan  was  formed  or 
executed  on  either  side,  it  does  not  appear  in  the 
pages  of  the  historian.  The  battle  was  a  drawn 
one;  but  apparently  the  Romans  were  left  in 
possession  of  the  field,  for  their  dead  were  buried, 
while  the  bodies  of  the  Goths  were  left  to  be  de- 
voured by  vultures.  Years  after,  the  husbandman, 
ploughing  in  that  fatal  plain,  marvelled  at  the  mighty 
bones  of  the  barbarians  which  his  plough-share  up- 
turned. 

In  this  battle  good  service  had  been  rendered  by  Advance  of 
some  troops  which  Gratian  had  sent  from  Gaul  to  Gratian- 
the  assistance  of  his  uncle.  The  young  Emperor 
had  had  his  own  hard  battles  to  fight  with  the  bar- 
barians who  dwelt  on  the  northern  shore  of  the  Lake 
of  Constance,  but  having  subdued  them  he  marched 
eastwards  in  378  as  far  as  Sirmium  on  the  Save, 
from  which  place  he  sent  a  message  to  Valens  that 
he  was  ready  to  co-operate  with  him  in  an  attack  on 
the  Goths,  whose  invasion  seemed  to  imperil  the 
very  existence  of  the  eastern  portion  of  the  Empire. 

But  Valens,  who  had  by  this  time  quitted  Antioch  378. 


Valens  at 
Haa 

fame,  and  in  no  humour  to  add  one  needless  leaf  of  0pU. 


for  Constantinople,  was  jealous  of  his  young  nephew's  ^ 


96 


Dynasty  of  Theodosins. 


[in. 


378-  laurel  to  his  crown.  He  had  pitched  his  camp  near 
Hadrianople,  and  there  received  the  messengers  of 
Gratian,  who  earnestly  besought  him  to  wait  for  their 
master's  arrival.  So  Victor  advised,  a  Slavonic 
barbarian  by  birth,  but  master  of  the  Imperial 
cavalry,  and  a  careful  and  cautious  general.  So, 
however,  did  not  advise  his  other  chief  general 
Sebastian,  who  was  elated  by  some  recent  victories 
that  he  had  won  over  the  barbarians :  and  his  rash 
counsels  found  too  sure  an  echo  in  the  jealous 
heart  of  Valens.  It  was  decided  to  fight  at  once 
and  end  the  Gothic  war  by  the  unaided  forces  of 
the  East. 

Negotia-        But  Fritigern  on  his  side  had  allies  whose  arrival 

Hons  be-  wag  eXpectjncr  The  Ostrogothic  chiefs,  Alatheus 
tween  Fri- 

tigem  and  and  Saphrax,  were  on  their  march  to  join  him,  and 
Valens.      foG  would  fain  postpone  the  battle  till  they  arrived. 

He  therefore  sent  a  Christian  priest  on  an  embassy 
to  Valens,  offering  to  make  peace  if  he  and  his 
followers  might  be  allowed  to  occupy  Thrace  as 
subjects  of  the  Empire.  Nothing  came  of  these 
negotiations ;  nothing  was  meant  to  come  of  them ; 
but  time  was  gained  for  Alatheus  and  Saphrax  to 
accomplish  another  day's  march  towards  the  army 
of  Fritigern. 

Battle  of       On  the  9th  August,  378,  a  day  long  and  fatally 
Hadrian-   memorable  in  the  annals  of  the  Empire,  the  legions 
37?.'  ^Aug  of  Valens  moved  forth  from  their  entrenched  camp 
under  the  walls  of  Hadrianople,  and  after  a  march  of 
eight  miles  under  the  hot  sun  of  August  came  in 
sight  of  the   barbarian   vanguard,  behind  which 


in.]  The  Coming  of  the  Huns. 


97 


stretched  the  circling  line  of  the  waggons  that  378- 
guarded  the  Gothic  host. 

Yet  another  embassy  did  the  artful  Fritigern 
(perhaps  not  over-confident  of  victory)  send  into 
the  Roman  camp.  There  were  discussions  as  to 
the  dignity  and  powers  of  the  messengers  :  the  Goth 
was  willing  to  send  one  of  his  noblest  chiefs  if  the 
Roman  would  do  the  same  as  a  pledge  of  his  safety. 
Richomer,  Count  of  the  Domestics,  Gratian's  re- 
presentative, expressed  his  willingness  to  go  as  a 
hostage  into  the  barbarian  camp,  but  scarcely  had 
he  reached  it  when,  behold  !  fresh  standards  were 
seen  upon  the  surrounding  hills.  The  long-waited 
for  troops  of  Alatheus  and  Saphrax  had  arrived,  and 
not  pausing  in  their  headlong  career  fell  like  a 
thunderbolt  on  the  Roman  flank. 

The  soldiers  of  the  Empire,  hot,  thirsty,  wearied 
out  with  hours  of  waiting  under  the  blaze  of  an 
August  sun,  and  only  half  understanding  that  the 
negotiations  were  ended  and  the  battle  begun,  fought 
at  a  terrible  disadvantage,  but  fought  not  ill.  The 
infantry  on  the  left  wing  seem  even  to  have  pushed 
back  their  enemies  and  penetrated  to  the  Gothic 
waggons.  But  they  were  for  some  reason  not 
covered  as  usual  by  a  force  of  cavalry,  and  they 
were  jammed  into  a  too  narrow  space  of  ground 
where  they  could  not  use  their  spears  with  effect, 
yet  presented  a  terribly  easy  mark  to  the  Gothic 
arrows.  They  fell  in  dense  masses  as  they  had 
stood.  Then  the  whole  weight  of  the  enemy's  attack 
was  directed  against  the  centre  and  right.  When 

H 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[in. 


378-  the  evening  began  to  close  in,  the  utterly  routed 
Roman  soldiers  were  rushing  in  disorderly  flight 
from  the  fatal  field.  The  night,  dark  and  moon- 
less, may  have  protected  some,  but  more  met  their 
death  rushing  blindly  over  a  rugged  and  unknown 
country. 

Fate  of  Meanwhile,  Valens  had  sought  shelter  with  a  little 
knot  of  soldiers  (the  two  regiments  of  Lancearii  and 
Mattiarii),  who  still  remained  unmoved  amidst  the 
surging  sea  of  ruin.  When  their  ranks  too  were 
broken,  and  when  some  of  his  bravest  officers  had 
fallen  around  him,  he  joined  the  common  soldiers 
in  their  headlong  flight.  Struck  by  a  Gothic  arrow 
he  fell  to  the  ground,  but  was  carried  off  by  some  of 
the  eunuchs  and  life-guardsmen  who  still  accom- 
panied him,  to  a  peasant's  cottage  hard  by.  The 
Goths,  ignorant  of  his  rank,  but  eager  to  strip  the 
gaily-clothed  guardsmen,  surrounded  the  cottage  and 
attempted  in  vain  to  burst  in  the  doors.  Then  mount- 
ing to  the  roof  they  tried  to  smoke  out  the  imprisoned 
inmates,  but  succeeding  beyond  their  desires,  set  fire 
to  the  cottage,  and  Emperor,  eunuchs,  and  life- 
guards perished  in  the  flames.  Only  one  of 
the  body-guard  escaped,  who  climbed  out  through 
one  of  the  blazing  windows  and  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  barbarians.  He  told  them  when  it 
was  too  late  what  a  prize  they  had  missed  in  their 
cruel  eagerness,  nothing  less  than  the  Emperor  of 
Rome. 

Ecclesiastical  historians  for  generations  delighted 
to  point  the  moral  of  the  story  of  Valens,  that  he  who 


in.]  The  Coming  of  the  Huns.  99 

had  seduced  the  whole  Gothic  nation  into  the  heresy  37s- 
of  Arius,  and  thus  caused  them  to  suffer  the  punish- 
ment of  everlasting  fire,  was  himself  by  those  very 
Goths  burned  alive  on  the  terrible  9th  of  August. 


11  2 


LECTURE  IV. 


Theodosius. 


3^-8.  In  the  battle  of  Hadrianople  two-thirds  of  the 

Roman  army  fell.  The  two  Counts,  Sebastian  and 
Trajan  (the  General-in-Chief  and  his  predecessor^ 
Valerian,  the  Count  of  the  Imperial  Stables,  and 
Aequitius,  a  relation  of  the  Emperor  and  Superinten- 
dent of  his  palace  \  were  all  stretched  dead  upon  the 
field.  There  too  lay  thirty-five  Tribunes,  officers 
whose  military  rank  corresponded  with  that  of  our 
Colonels.  The  historian  says,  with  perfect  truth, 
that  since  the  day  of  Cannae  no  such  disaster  had 
befallen  the  Roman  army.  Nor  had  the  Roman 
State,  now  in  the  twelfth  century  of  its  existence, 
the  same  power  of  recovering  from  its  reverses  which 
it  possessed  in  the  sixth  century  from  the  building 
of  the  City,  when  the  statue  of  Victory  in  the  Capitol 
drooped  her  wings  at  the  news  of  the  slaughter  on 
the  Apulian  plain. 

Movements     Yet  the  Goths,  though  they  had  shown  that  they 

of  the  Goths  cou\^  wm  a  battle,  had  as  yet  neither  discipline  nor 

after  the  J  r 

battle  of     warlike  art  sufficient  to  enable  them  to  conquer  in  a 

Hadrian-   campaign.    An  unsuccessful  attack  on  Hadrianople 
was  followed  by  an  equal  failure  before  the  walls  of 

1  Cura  Palati. 


IV.] 


Theodosins. 


101 


Constantinople.    By  a  strange  inversion  of  its  future  378. 
fates,   the  Imperial  capital  by  the  Bosphorus  was  S*egc  °f 
defended  from  these  Visigoths  (the  ancestors  of  tinople. 
Don  John  of  Austria  and  of  all  the  Christian  chivalry 
of  Spain)  by  a  body  of  Saracen  soldiers  who  had 
been  enlisted  under  the  banners  of  the  Empire.  One 
of  these  wild  defenders  of  civilisation,  nearly  naked 
but  with  long  and  shaggy  hair,   dashed  forward 
with  a  melancholy   howl  into  the  Gothic  ranks, 
stabbed  an  enemy  with  his  short  sword,  and  then 
putting  his  lips  to   the   neck  of  the    slain  foe 
sucked  his  life-blood  with  eager  zest.    The  thought 
of  fighting  against  such  monsters  as  this  was  too 
terrible  for  the   impressionable   Goths,  and  they 
retired  disheartened  from  the  walls. 

But,  quite  independently  of  any  such  exceptional  Weakness 
causes  of  panic,  there  was  a  striking  weakness  in  °ft^eGoihs 

,  as  besiegers . 

the  Gothic  attack  whenever  they  came  face  to  face 
with  a  fenced  city.  When  Fritigern  marched  away 
from  the  treacherous  city  of  Marcianople,  crying 
out,  '  I  wage  no  war  on  stone  walls,'  he  expressed 
that  which  was  of  necessity  the  maxim  of  all  the  bar- 
barian warriors  during  the  succeeding  century.  It 
cannot  be  said  that  at  this  time  the  powers  of  the 
defence  in  sieges  were  necessarily  superior  to  those 
of  the  attack.  On  the  contrary,  in  the  wars  between 
Persia  and  Rome  it  is  remarkable  how  often  the 
same  cities  were  taken  and  retaken.  But  a  siege  re- 
quired patience,  mechanical  skill,  and  untiring  vigil- 
ance, and  could  not  be  decided  by  a  mere  outburst 
of  Berserker  fury  such  as  sometimes  swept  the 


102 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[IV. 


378.         legions  before  it  on  the  field  of  battle.    In  reading 
the  account  of  a  Roman  siege-train  given  by  Am- 
mianus  Marcellinus  \  though  I  cannot  say  that  I 
understand  all  his  explanations  (and  I  believe  it 
would  require  the  combination  of  an  expert  mechani- 
cian and  an  invincible  translator  of  Latin  to  make 
sense  of  many  of  them),  still  it  is  easy  to  perceive 
this  much — that  a  siege  was  then,  as  now,  practically 
a  duel  of  artillery,  though  in  the  working  of  that 
artillery  the  explosive  force  of  gunpowder  was  not 
made  use  of,  and  that  it  was  by  the  engineer,  rather 
than  by  the  warrior,  that  the  strongest  city  was 
A  Roman  taken.    There  was  the  Balista,  for  the  discharge  of 
siege-train.  fae  str0ng  iron-shod  wooden  arrow  ;  the  Scorpion, 
or  the  Wild  Ass  2,  which  suddenly  reared  itself  high 
in  air  and  hurled  forth  its  heavy  stone  ;  the  Battering 
Rams,  for  butting  at  all  the  weakest  places  in  a 
wall;  the  City-taker*,  which  fastened  its  triangular 
prongs  into  the  wall  and  tore  it  to  pieces.    By  these 
and  by  the  great  moving  towers  the  city  was  at- 
tacked, and  by  machines  as  complicated  and  as  de- 
structive, but  of  a  somewhat  different  kind,  it  was 
defended.    For  all  this  sort  of  work,  as  I  have  said, 
not  only  the   humbler  qualities  of  the   soldier — 
patience  and  vigilance — but  also  some  of  the  skill  of 
a  trained  mechanician,  were   needed ;   and  these 
qualities,  abundantly  present  in  many  even  of  the 
common  soldiers  among  the  Italians,  the  Greeks, 
and  the   Persians,  were  yet  wanting  in  the  un- 
tutored brains  of  the  Teutonic  warriors. 

1  xxiii.  4.  2  Onager.  3  Aries.  4  Helepolis. 


tv.]  Theodosius.  103 

Therefore  the  story  of  the  wars  between  the  bar-  378-9. 
barians  and  the  Empire  is  for  the  most  part  a  story 
of  monotonous  uniformity  of  ill-success,  as  far  as  the 
sieges  undertaken  by  the  former  are  concerned.  They 
win  battles  in  the  open  field ;  they  occupy  the  great 
Roman  roads,  and  cut  off  communication  between 
the  provinces  and  the  capital ;  they  lay  waste  the 
country  districts,  and  sometimes  by  the  famine  thus 
caused  they  deprive  the  citizens  of  the  means  of 
prolonging  their  resistance.  More  often,  by  the 
treachery  of  slaves  or  fellow-countrymen  of  their 
own  inside  the  walls,  they  bring  about  the  city's 
fall ;  but  scarcely  ever  do  they  take  it  by  fair  and 
open  warfare,  in  a  regularly-conducted  siege.  And 
for  a  considerable  part  of  those  seventy  years  of 
struggle  which  I  am  briefly  describing  to  you,  you 
must  think  of  the  cities  as  standing  up  behind  their 
quadrangular  walls,  little  islands  of  civilisation  and 
still  unshaken  loyalty  to  the  Empire,  while  over  the 
fields  and  through  the  unwalled  villages  rages  the 
wide-sweeping  flood  of  barbarian  invasion. 

This  was  essentially  the  character  of  the  war  The  Gothic 
during  the  years  378  and  379,  though  the  Roman  attack 
defence  was  gradually  becoming  stronger,  and  the  feebler, 
attacks  of  the  Goths  wilder  and  more  purposeless  378~339- 
during  the  whole  of  that  period.    The  despair  and 
the  hatred  which  had  banded  them  together  as  one 
man  under  the  leadership  of  Fritigern,  lost  their 
uniting  power.    They  roamed  southwards  into  the 
pleasant  lands  of  Achaia,  northwards  to  the  Save, 
into  and  perhaps  across  the  borders  of  Pannonia  ; 


io4 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[IV. 


378-9.  but  the  hope  of  plunder  and  a  child's  love  of  break- 
ing beautiful  things  seem  to  have  been  their  only 
motives.  There  is  no  longer  a  trace  of  that  serious 
purpose  of  conquest  which  does  seem  to  have 
animated  them  up  to  the  day  of  Hadrianople. 
The  Gothic  One  vile  deed  of  a  Roman  official  must  have  stirred 
hostage-  many  Gothic  hearts  to  fury,  yet  did  not  receive  its 
b°acredT  proper  meed  of  vengeance.  It  will  be  remembered 
that  when  the  Visigothic  warriors  were  ferried  across 
the  Danube  in  the  Imperial  cutters,  they  were  com- 
pelled to  deliver  up  the  sons  of  the  noblest  among 
them  as  hostages.  These  lads  had  been  distributed 
through  the  cities  of  the  East :  while  their  fathers  and 
their  kindred  had  been  suffering  the  hardships  of 
famine,  they  had  been  growing  up  to  manhood,  and 
it  was  feared  that  the  news  of  the  victory  of  Ha- 
drianople might  arouse  them  to  some  deed  of  daring 
against  the  Empire.  Julius,  Master  of  the  Soldiery1, 
to  whose  care  these  young  hostages  had  been  es- 
pecially committed,  sent  for  the  various  military  pre- 
fects, and  after  binding  them  to  secrecy  under  solemn 
oaths,  communicated  to  them  his  bloody  purpose. 
The  young  Goths  in  each  district  were  invited  to  the 
capital  of  the  province  under  promise  of  receiving 
grants  of  money  and  land  from  the  Emperor.  They 
came  full  of  hope  and  of  good-humour  towards  their 
hosts.  As  soon  as  they  were  all  collected  in  the 
forum  of  each  city,  the  soldiers,  who  had  been  pre- 
viously stationed  on  the  roofs  of  the  surrounding 
houses,  assailed  them  with  darts  and  stones.  They 
1  '  Trans  Taurum.'  I  suppose  this  is  equivalent  to  '  per  Orientem.' 


IV.] 


Theodoshis. 


105 


were  of  course  utterly  unable  to  strike  a  blow  in  378-9- 
return  against  their  cowardly  assailants,  and  each 
Asiatic  forum  soon  had  its  heap  of  unresisting  slain. 
A  base  and  treacherous  deed,  and  one  which  we 
regret  to  find  both  our  two  chief  historians 1  of  this 
period  mentioning  with  words  of  praise  for  its 
cowardly  contrivers. 

The  disorganisation  of  the  Empire  after  the  battle  Gratian 
of  Hadrianople  was  complete,  and  Gratian  wisely  a^°ciate\ 

r  r  J  Ineoao sins 

concluded  that  he,  a  lad  of  nineteen,  was  not  able,  in  the 

unaided,  to  bring  it  to  a  close.    He  looked  around  IfnPerml 

dignity. 

him  for  a  colleague,  and  recognised  with  the  frank- 
ness of  his  noble  nature  that  there  was  no  man  so 
suitable  for  the  post  as  one  whom  his  family  had 
deeply  wronged,  the  late  Duke  of  Moesia,THEODosius. 

This  man,  whose  name  in  various  ways  has  be-  Origin  of 
come  so  famous  in  the  history  both  of  the  Empire  Theodo~ 

J  r  SlUS. 

and  the  Church,  was  born  about  the  year  346  at  a 
place  called  Cauca,  in  the  north-western  corner  of 
Spain.  He  belonged  by  birth  to  the  class  of  wealthy 
Provincials  from  which  many  of  the  officials  of  the 
Empire  were  chosen,  and  who  constituted  in  fact,  if 
not  in  name,  a  sort  of  rural  nobility.  After  he  had 
been  clothed  with  the  purple,  flatterers  and  poets 
discovered  that  he  was  a  remote  descendant  of  the 
great  Emperor  Trajan,  but  this  seems  to  have  been 
only  a  courtier-like  deduction  from  the  fact  that  he, 
like  Trajan,  was  a  Spaniard. 

1  Amtnianus,  '  Efficacia  Julii  magistri  militiae  trans  Taurum 
enituit  salutaris  et  velox.'    Zosimus,  'lovkios  rotySe  tivi  rpoircf  rbv 


io6 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[iv. 


368-376.        His  father,  Count  Theodosius,  had  been  sent  to 

Theodosius  Britain  in  368  to  repel  an  invasion  of  Picts,  Scots, 
the  Elder.  .  , 

and  Attacotti,  and  making  the  old  town  of  Lun- 

dinium  his  base  of  operations,  had  attacked  the 
various  parties  of  freebooters  who  were  roaming 
about  the  country,  and  had  succeeded  in  spoiling  the 
spoilers,  and  restoring  the  greater  part  of  their  pro- 
perty to  the  plundered  provincials.  Two  years 
afterwards  he  had  delivered  Raetia  (Tyrol  and  the 
Grisons)  from  a  similar  invasion  of  the  Alamanni, 
and  had  sent  many  of  the  invaders  to  Italy  to  culti- 
vate as  serfs  the  meadow  lands  of  the  Po.  In  373 
he  conducted  a  most  successful  campaign  in  Africa 
against  a  Mauritanian  chieftain,  Firmus,  who  had 
rebelled  against  the  Emperor.  The  rebel  committed 
suicide,  and  his  conqueror,  with  the  title  of  Comes 
Africae,  administered  the  government  of  the  province 
which  he  had  saved.  Then  came  a  sudden  check  to 
his  prosperous  course.  In  376,  shortly  after  the 
death  of  Valentinian,  he  was  accused,  we  know  not 
on  what  charge,  sentenced  to  death,  and  beheaded 
at  Carthage,  having  first  received  the  sacrament  of 
baptism.  The  cause  of  this  strange  and  sad  termin- 
ation of  an  honourable  career  has  never  been  ex- 
plained. Some  think  that  the  young  Gratian,  only 
just  arrived  at  the  helm  of  affairs,  was  jealous  of  the 
veteran's  fame,  but  nothing  in  the  character  of  that 
Emperor  justifies  so  foul  a  charge.  Others  believe 
that  his  real  offence  was  having  exposed  the  villainies 
and  peculations  of  Romanus,  his  predecessor  in  the 
government  of  Africa.    But  it  seems  to  me  on  the 


IV.] 


Theodosius. 


107 


whole  most  probable  that  his  death  was  in  some  376-379- 
way  connected  with  an  outburst  of  jealous  rage  and 
suspicion  on  the  partofValens  against  all  persons 
whose  names  began  with  the  letters  THEOD,  Theo- 
dorus,  Theodoret,  and  so  forth,  as  it  had  come  to 
the  ears  of  the  Emperor  that  a  citizen  of  Antioch 
had  been  resorting  to  magical  arts  to  learn  the  name 
of  his  future  successor,  and  that  those  letters  (which 
proved  fatal  to  many  a  Roman  citizen)  had  been 
revealed  by  the  oracle  as  forming  the  beginning  of 
the  fated  name. 

On  the  death  of  his  father,  the  young  Theodosius, 
then  about  thirty  years  of  age,  who  had  done  good 
service  to  the  State  as  Duke  of  Moesia,  retired  into 
private  life.  If,  as  was  probably  the  case,  he  was 
succeeded  by  the  base  and  corrupt  Maximus,  whose 
avarice  drove  the  Goths  to  despair,  the  unjust  death 
of  the  elder  Theodosius  was  indeed  soon  and  terribly 
avenged  on  his  ungrateful  masters. 

Now,  however,  the  fortunes  of  the  house  of  Theo-  Theodosius 
dosius  emerged  from  the  cloud,  more  resplendent  °^ 
than  ever.    The  new  Emperor  was  clothed  in  the  19  Jan. 
purple  and  invested  with  'the  rule  of  the  universe'  379* 
(17  To>v  o\(ov  apxv)  at  Sirmium,  on  the  19th  of  January, 
379.    The  share  of  the  Empire  assigned  to  his  im- 
mediate superintendence  was  of  course  the  East, 
together  with  Macedonia  and  Dacia.    The  rest  of 
the  Diocese  of  Illyricum  was  joined,  now  as  on 
many  other  occasions,  to  the  Western  half  of  the 
Empire. 

The  first  duty  that  Theodosius  had  to  undertake  Guerilla 

War. 


io8 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[iv. 


379-380.  was  to  restore  the  self-confidence  and  trust  in  victory 
of  the  Roman  army,  terribly  shaken  as  these  qualities 
had  been  by  the  disastrous  rout  of  Hadrianople. 
This  he  accomplished  by  waging  a  successful  gue- 
rilla war  with  the  Gothic  marauders.  Valens  had 
played  into  the  hands  of  the  barbarians  by  risking 
everything  on  one  great  pitched  battle.  Theodo- 
sius adopted  the  very  opposite  policy.  He  out- 
manoeuvred the  isolated  and  straggling  bands  of  the 
Goths,  defeated  them  in  one  skirmish  after  another 
that  did  not  deserve  the  name  of  a  battle,  and  thus 
restored  the  courage  and  confidence  of  the  Imperial 
troops.  By  the  end  of  379  he  seems  to  have  suc- 
ceeded in  clearing  the  territory  south  of  the  Balkan 
range  of  the  harassing  swarms  of  the  barbarians. 
Sickness  In  February,  380,  he  fell  sick  at  Thessalonica 
°dosius°'  (wnicn  was  his  chief  basis  of  operations  throughout 
this  period),  and  this  sickness,  from  which  he  did 
not  fully  recover  for  some  months,  was  productive  of 
two  important  results,  (1)  his  baptism  as  a  Trinitarian 
Christian,  (2)  a  renewal  of  the  war  against  fresh 
swarms  of  barbarians. 
Theodosius  (1)  Theodosius  appears  up  to  this  point  of  his 
"creldlf6  career  not  to  have  definitely  ranged  himself  on 
Nicaea.  either  side  of  the  great  Arian  controversy,  though 
he  had  a  hereditary  inclination  towards  the  Creed  of 
Nicaea.  Like  his  father,  however,  he  had  post- 
poned baptism  in  accordance  with  the  prevalent 
usage  of  his  day :  but  now  upon  a  bed  of  sickness 
which  seemed  likely  to  be  one  of  death,  he  delayed 
no  longer,  but  received  the  rite  at  the  hands  of 


IV.] 


Theodosius. 


Ascholius,  the  Catholic  Bishop  of  Thessalonica.  380. 
Before  he  was  able  to  resume  his  post  at  the  head 
of  the  legions,  he  published  his  celebrated  Edict : 
'To  the  people  of  Constantinople. — We  desire  that 
all  the  nations  who  are  governed  by  the  rule  of  our 
Clemency  shall  practise  that  religion  which  the  Apostle 
Peter  himself  delivered  to  the  Romans,  and  which 
it  is  manifest  that  the  pontiff  Damasus,  and  Peter, 
Bishop  of  Alexandria,  a  man  of  Apostolic  sanctity, 
do  now  follow :  that  according  to  the  discipline  of 
the  Apostles  and  the  teaching  of  the  Evangelists 
they  believe  in  the  one  Godhead  of  Father,  Son, 
and  Holy  Spirit,  in  equal  Majesty,  and  in  the  holy 
Trinity.  We  order  all  who  follow  this  law  to  assume 
the  name  of  Catholic  Christians,  decreeing  that  all 
others,  being  mad  and  foolish  persons,  shall  bear  the 
infamy  of  their  heretical  dogmas,  and  that  their  Con- 
venticles shall  not  receive  the  name  of  Churches  :  to 
be  punished  first  by  Divine  vengeance,  and  after- 
wards by  that  exertion  of  our  power  to  chastise 
which  we  have  received  from  the  decree  of  heaven/ 

Thus  then  at  length  the  Caesar  of  the  East  was  The  power 
ranged  on  the  side  of  Trinitarian  orthodoxy.  Con-  °fthe^ast- 
stantine  in  the  latter  'part  of  his  reign,  Constantius,  now  en- 

Valens,  had  all  been  Arians  or  semi-Arians,  some  o{hstedon  . 

the  side  oj 

them  bitter  in  their  heterodoxy.  Julian  had  been  a  Orthodoxy. 
worshipper  of  the  gods  of  Olympus.  Thus  for  nearly 
two  generations  the  influence  of  the  Court  of  Con- 
stantinople had  been  thrown  into  the  scale  against 
the  teaching  of  Athanasius,  which  was  generally 
accepted  throughout  the  Western  realm.    Now  by 


no 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[IV. 


38°-  the  accession  of  Theodosius  to  the  Trinitarian  side, 
religious  unity  was  restored  to  the  Empire :  but  at 
the  same  time  a  chasm,  an  impassable  chasm,  was 
opened  between  the  Empire  itself  and  its  new  Teu- 
tonic guests,  nearly  all  of  whom  held  fast  to  the 
Arian  teaching  of  their  great  Apostle  Ulfilas. 
Further  (2)  The  other  consequence  of  the  sickness  of 
inroads  of  Theodosius  was,  as  I  have  said,  a  fresh  incursion  of 

the  bar- 
barians,    barbarian  hordes,  swarming  across  the  Danube  and 

climbing  all  the  high  passes  of  the  Balkans.  The 
work  of  clearing  the  country  of  these  marauders  had 
to  be  all  done  over  again.  One  dark  night,  when 
the  Emperor  was  encamping  in  Macedonia,  the  bar- 
barians, seeing  a  particularly  bright  watch-fire  burn- 
ing, and  rightly  conjecturing  that  it  marked  the  tent 
of  the  Emperor,  made  a  sudden  dash  and  very  nearly 
succeeded  in  sending  Theodosius  to  rejoin  his  pre- 
decessor Valens.  There  was  a  terrible  struggle  : 
few  Romans  against  the  overwhelming  hosts  of  the 
Goths,  but  the  soldiers  of  Theodosius,  who  loved 
him  well,  fought  on  desperately  till  he  had  escaped, 
and  then  fell  dead,  surrounded  by  an  uncounted 
host  of  slain  barbarians. 
Reinforce-      The  campaign  of  380  was  such  a  hard  one  that 

ments  sent  Theodosius  had  to  solicit  reinforcements  from  his 
by  Grattan, 

780.  colleague  Gratian,  which  were  sent  to  him  under 
the  command  of  Bauto  and  Arbogast,  two  Frankish 
chiefs  who  had  entered  the  Imperial  service.  Indeed 
all  along  the  line,  in  the  West  as  in  the  East,  the 
characteristic  feature  of  this  period  was  the  number 
of  barbarians  who  attained  high  rank  in  the  legions 


IV.] 


Theodosius. 


in 


of  Rome,  and  who  upon  the  whole  served  her  with  380-381. 
marked  fidelity. 

At  length,  in  the  closing  months  of  380,  the 
provinces  south  of  the  Balkans  (Macedonia  and 
Thrace)  were  once  more  cleared  of  their  barbarian 
intruders.  Peace,  in  which  Gratian  concurred,  was 
concluded  with  the  Goths  who  still  doubtless  a- 
bounded  in  Moesia ;  and  Theodosius  on  the  24th 
of  November  entered  Constantinople  in  state. 

The  inhabitants  of  the  New  Rome  by  the  Bosphorus,  Theodosius 
who  perhaps  had  not  before  seen  Theodosius  as  wflcomes . 

A  Athanaric 

Emperor,  were  soon  to  behold  a  ruler  of  a  very  at  Constan- 
different  type  side  by  side  with  the  courtly  and  tm0Ple> 
magnificent  Spaniard.  The  grey  old  Visigoth,  Atha- 
naric, had  been  driven,  apparently  by  Ostrogothic 
invaders,  from  his  airy  stronghold  in  the  Car- 
pathians. The  death  of  Fritigern  (which  seems 
to  have  happened  about  this  time)  left  him  the  chief 
ruler  of  the  scattered  and  disorganised  Visigothic 
nation.  Converted  from  his  old,  almost  religious 
prejudice  against  Rome,  and  recanting  the  oath 
which  he  had  once  sworn  never  to  set  foot  on  the 
soil  of  the  Empire,  he  now  crossed  the  Danube  and 
accepted  the  Emperor's  invitation  to  visit  him  in 
his  capital,  probably  in  order  to  ratify  and  proclaim 
to  the  world  the  peace  just  concluded  between 
'  Romania  '  and  '  Gothia.'  We  must  let  the  Gothic 
historian  tell  the  story  of  this  visit  in  his  own  ex- 
pressive words '. 

'Theodosius  attached  to  himself  King  Athanaric, 

1  Jordanes  xxviii. 


112 


Dynasty  of  Theodosins. 


[iv. 


381.  who  had  succeeded  Fritigern,  by  the  gifts  which  he 
gave  him,  and  in  the  kindest  terms  invited  him  to  visit 
him  at  Constantinople  ;  who  accepted  right  willingly 
and  said,  marvelling,  "  Lo,  I  behold,  what  often  I 
heard  incredulously,  the  fame  of  so  great  a  city."  Then 
turning  his  eyes  this  way  and  that,  now  he  admires 
the  position  of  the  city  and  the  concourse  of  ships, 
now  the  long  clearly-marked  line  of  the  walls,  and 
then  again  the  natives  from  so  many  different  stocks 
bubbling  up  like  water  from  one  fountain  in  many 
directions,  yet  all  disciplined  like  well-trained  soldiers. 
"  A  god,"  he  said,  "without  doubt  a  god  upon  earth  is 
the  Emperor,  and  whoever  moveth  a  hand  against 
him,  that  man  is  guilty  of  his  own  blood."  In  such 
a  state  of  admiration,  being  supported  by  the  yet 
greater  honours  which  he  received  from  the  Emperor, 
after  the  interval  of  a  few  months  [or  more  correctly 
fourteen  days1]  he  departed  from  the  light  of  day. 

Athanarics  Whom  the  Emperor  out  of  the  love  which  he  bore  to 
him,  honouring  almost  more  as  dead  than  as  alive, 
delivered  to  a  worthy  burial,  himself  going  before 
the  bier  in  his  solemn  obsequies.  Therefore  when 
Athanaric  was  dead,  all  his  army,  remaining  in  the 
service  of  the  Emperor  Theodosius,  and  submitting 
itself  to  the  Roman  Empire,  formed  as  it  were  one 
body  with  the  [Imperial]  soldiery,  that  old  enlistment 
of  the  Foederati  under  the  Emperor  Constantine 
being  now  renewed,  and  they  themselves  were  now 
called  Foederati.' 

1  Idatius,  Descriptio  Consilium,  makes  the  entry  of  Athanaric  into 
Constantinople  11  Jan.  and  his  death  25  Jan.  381. 


iv.] 


Theodosius. 


113 


There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  politic  courtesy  The  bulk 
which  Theodosius  showed  to  Athanaric  exercised  an  °{the  Goth 

become 

important  influence  on  the  relations  which  existed  Foederati 
for  the  next  fifteen  years  between  the  Empire  and  °fthe  Em 

pire. 

the  Goths.  If  we  look  at  the  position  of  the  two 
parties  to  the  contract  we  shall  see  that  the  conclusion 
or  the  renewal  of  the  Foedus  between  them  was 
really  for  the  interest  of  both.  For  the  Empire,  a 
complete  reversal  of  the  policy  of  Valens  was  now 
impossible.  Ever  since  the  day  when  the  last  of 
the  200,000  Gothic  warriors  was  ferried  across  the 
Danube,  their  inclusion  in  the  Empire  in  one  ca- 
pacity or  another  had  become  an  accomplished  and 
irreversible  fact.  They  could  not  be  thrust  back 
into  their  old  Dacian  home,  where  by  this  time  the 
Huns  were  probably  swarming,  but  they  might  be 
converted  from  the  ravagers  of  Thrace  into  the 
tillers  of  Moesia.  They  might  be  made  the  stalwart 
defenders  of  the  Danubian  frontier  against  those 
very  Huns,  and  against  the  motley  horde  of  Teutons, 
Slaves,  and  Tartars  who  flocked  around  their 
standard  of  squalid  and  anarchic  despotism. 

On  the  other  hand  the  Goths,  unable  to  capture 
the  strong  cities  of  the  Empire,  could  not  live 
perpetually  on  the  mere  ravage  of  the  Thracian 
home-steads.  Viewing  the  movements  of  peoples 
and  the  migrations  of  barbarous  tribes  from  the  high 
historic  standpoint,  and  especially  seeing  what  these 
movements  and  migrations  actually  accomplished  in 
the  fifth  century  of  our  era,  we  are  apt  to  think  that 
the  conquest  of  kingdoms  and  the  foundation  of 

1 


ii4 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[IV. 


empires  was  the  deliberate  and  persistent  purpose 
of  chief  and  people.  On  the  contrary,  if  we  could  be 
present  in  the  rough  councils  which  gathered  around 
their  camp-fires  and  listen  to  the  talk  of  the  warriors 
with  their  wives  in  the  great  Gothic  waggons,  we 
should  probably  discover  that  the  question  in  what 
way  and  from  what  source  the  next  day's  meal  was 
to  be  provided,  was  far  more  often  and  more 
anxiously  debated  than  any  question  of  high  policy 
or  dream  of  world-conquest.  Now,  by  the  policy 
which  Theodosius  seemed  willing  to  adopt  of  re- 
newing the  old  Foedus  between  Rome  and  her  Gothic 
friends,  food,  and  comfortable  homes,  and  a  dis- 
tinguished career  in  arms  were  assured  to  the 
meanest  Gothic  soldier,  and  admission  to  the 
dignities  and  luxuries  of  the  most  splendid  court  in 
the  world  was  assured  to  their  chiefs.  The  Roman 
Empire  was  still,  if  I  may  use  a  commercial  phrase, 
'a  going  concern/  The  barbarians  had  power  to 
wreck  it  and  drive  it  into  bankruptcy  ?  Yes,  perhaps 
they  had  :  but  it  was  surely  a  far  more  alluring 
prospect  to  take  shares  in  the  company  and  touch 
some  part  of  the  enormous  profits  which  accrued  to 
the  directors. 

This  kind  of  calculation — and  I  have  purposely 
chosen  a  commercial  metaphor  in  order  to  indicate 
the  perfectly  selfish  character  of  the  bargain — 
prevailed  at  this  time  in  the  minds  of  the  barbarians 
over  any  dim  and  shadowy  dreams  which  might 
linger  there  of  setting  up  a  new  and  conquering 
Visigothic  kingdom  between  the  Danube  and  the 


iv.]  Theodosius.  115 

Balkans.  But  then,  when  self-interest  was  prompting 
them  to  this  course,  sentiment  was  enlisted  on  the 
same  side  by  the  generous  hospitality  offered  to  the 
worn-out  veteran  Athanaric  in  the  great  city  of  the 
South,  by  his  own  childlike  admiration  of  the  wonders 
which  she  displayed  to  his  view,  by  the  splendid 
funeral,  and  by  the  sight  of  the  courtly  Augustus, 
robed  in  the  purple  and  wearing  the  diadem  of  Em- 
pire, escorting  the  Gothic  warrior  to  his  tomb. 

What  the  precise  nature  of  the  tie  was  which  What  did 
bound  the  foederati  to  the  Empire  I  do  not  think  ^p^de-" 
we  can  definitely  explain.    From  time  immemorial  rati  in- 
Rome  had  fought  her  battles  with  troops  pretty volve- 
equally  divided  between  the  legions  (theoretically 
composed  of  pure  Roman  citizens)  and  the  Auxilia 
(consisting  of  her  subject-allies).    These  allies  had 
at  first  been  chiefly  dwellers  in  the  cities  of  Latium, 
but  by  the  time  that  we  have  now  reached  they  were 
gathered  from  almost  every  nation  under  heaven. 
Here,  in  our  own  Northumberland,  all  the  garrison 
duty  along  the  Wall  was  done  by  these  auxiliary 
troops.    Asturians  from  Spain,  Tungrians  and  Bata- 
vians  from  Holland,  Dacians  from  Transylvania,  and 
Dalmatians  from  the  eastern  shore  of  the  Hadriatic, 
were  keeping  watch  for  Rome  on  these  wind-swept 
hills.    But  those  allies  were  still  distinctly  Roman 
soldiers,  who  served  under  Roman  officers,  and 
were  amenable  to  Roman  discipline.     The  bond 
which  held  the  foederati  to  the  Empire  appears  to 
have  been  a  much  looser  one.    It  would  seem  that 
the  federated  Goths  still  served  under  their  own 


n6 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[IV. 


native  chiefs,  and  retained  to  a  large  extent  their 
national  weapons  and  their  own  peculiar  manner  of 
fighting.  They  no  doubt  had  lands  assigned  to 
them,  chiefly  in  Moesia,  which  they  may  have  culti- 
vated partly  with  their  own  hands  and  partly  by  the 
forced  labour  of  coloni.  In  fact,  though  we  are  of 
course  still  many  centuries  off  from  regular  feudal 
rights  and  obligations,  there  was  probably  something 
in  the  relation  of  a  chief  of  foederati  to  the  Emperor 
not  altogether  unlike  the  relation  of  a  feudal  baron 
to  his  lord  paramount. 
Results  of  The  scheme  of  Theodosius  answered  as  a  tem- 
^/Theodo  Porarv  expedient.  It  gave  security  to  the  Danubian 
sius.  frontier  for  his  day ;  perhaps  had  his  successors 
been  men  of  equal  ability  with  himself  it  might  have 
prolonged  that  security  for  centuries.  But  there 
were  some  obvious  dangers  attending  it.  Evidently 
these  masses  of  men,  trained  to  act  together,  obeying 
their  own  princes,  and  conscious  of  their  strength, 
might  one  day  turn  against  Rome  the  weapons  which 
they  were  now  wielding  on  her  behalf.  The  '  pro- 
vincials/ the  earlier  subjects  of  Rome,  finding  their 
services  less  needed,  would  grow  unused  to  warfare, 
and  would  in  the  course  of  time  be  almost  sure  to 
sink  into  a  despised  and  spiritless  caste,  among 
whom  the  proud  Teutonic  foederatus  would  stalk 
with  an  exasperating  consciousness  of  superiority. 
Above  all,  the  Emperor  himself,  having  the  barba- 
rians for  his  tent  companions,  the  sharers  of  his 
dangers,  the  confidants  of  his  councils,  and  the  sup- 
porters of  his  throne,  would  get  to  lean  more  and 


IV.] 


Theodosius. 


117 


more  upon  them,  and  might  become  an  Emperor  of 
barbarians  instead  of  an  Emperor  of  the  civilised 
commonwealth  of  Rome. 

The  whole  history  of  Theodosius  shows  that 
this  was  a  very  real  danger  in  his  time.  There 
was  something  in  his  own  character,  fond  as  he 
was  of  pomp  and  spectacle  and  the  mere  outward 
trappings  of  royalty,  which  harmonised  only  too  well 
with  the  nature  of  the  barbarians.  While  he  was 
surrounding  himself  with  troops  of  tall  and  bril- 
liantly-accoutred foederati,  and  spending  his  time  and 
the  money  of  his  subjects  over  an  endless  round  of 
games  and  chariot-races,  and  on  sumptuous  ban- 
quets at  which  the  Gothic  'wassail*  was  loudly 
heard,  the  provinces  were  groaning  under  the 
demands  of  the  tax-gatherer ;  and  the  machine 
of  administration  which  Valens,  with  all  his  faults, 
had  superintended  with  some  diligence,  was  daily 
getting  into  more  and  more  hopeless  disorganisa- 
tion. 

Both  the  two  great  insurrections  which  broke  out  Imurrec- 
in  the  reign  of  Theodosius,  and  each  of  which  is  U™lt°{ch 
connected  with  the  story  of  a  great  father  of  the  587. 
Church,  sprang,  directly  or   indirectly,  from  the 
favour  shown  by  the  Emperor  to  his  foederati.  In 
the  year  387  he  determined  to  celebrate  the  fifth 
year  of  the  reign  of  his  young  son  Arcadius,  whom 
he  had  associated  with  him  in  the  Empire,  in  a  style 
of  extraordinary  magnificence.    For  this  purpose 
there  must  be  more  splendid  games,  more  exciting 
chariot-races,  and,  above  all,  a  more  liberal  donative 


n8 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[IV. 


to  the  soldiery  than  any  that  had  yet  been  given. 
In  order  to  supply  funds  for  these  various  ex- 
penses, a  new  tax  (probably  what  was  called  the 
aurum  coronarium)  was  levied  on  the  cities  of  the 
Empire.  At  the  news  of  this  fresh  imposition,  the 
citizens  of  Antioch,  already  ground  down  to  the  very 
dust  by  the  pressure  of  the  ordinary  taxation,  broke 
out  into  open  rebellion.  While  the  more  respect- 
able and  religious  citizens  betook  themselves  to  the 
churches  to  pray  God  to  change  the  Emperor's 
purpose,  or  besought  the  Bishop  Flavianus  to  inter- 
cede for  the  removal  of  the  tax,  a  mob  of  boys  and 
■  lewd  fellows  of  the  baser  sort '  visited  the  spacious 
Baths,  and  cutting  the  ropes  by  which  the  lamps  were 
suspended,  caused  them  to  fall  with  a  crash  on  the 
pavement.  Then  the  boys  began  to  throw  stones  at 
the  wooden  statues  of  the  Emperor  and  his  family. 
They  shouted  for  joy  when  one  of  the  statues  was 
split  in  pieces  ;  they  groaned  when  one,  more  stub- 
born than  the  rest,  long  resisted  their  assaults. 
They  then  went  to  the  more  costly  bronze  statues, 
pulled  them  from  their  pedestals  with  ropes,  dragged 
them  ignominiously  through  the  streets,  and  ended 
by  giving  them  to  the  children  to  play  with.  What 
made  the  insult  the  more  bitter  was,  that  not  only 
the  statues  of  the  Emperor  himself,  but  those  of  the 
noble  old  veteran  his  father,  of  his  lately  deceased 
wife,  and  of  his  young  son  and  colleague,  were  all 
treated  with  the  same  contumely.  Next  came  an 
attempt  at  fire-raising  in  the  house  of  a  magistrate 
who  tried  to  persuade  them  to  cease  their  rioting ; 


IV.] 


Theodosius. 


119 


and  last,  the  appearance  of  some  Imperial  archers,  3§7- 
who  discharged  their  arrows  upon  the  crowd.  There- 
upon at  once  the  tumult,  which  had  flamed  up  so 
high  and  seemed  so  menacing,  died  down  like  a  fire 
of  straw. 

The  insult  to  the  majesty  of  the  Emperor  had  been  Reaction 
great,  perhaps  unforgiveable.  The  whole  city  passed  f™™n™to 
in  an  hour  from  the  extreme  of  insolence  and  20a-  panic. 
archyto  the  extreme  of  cowed  submission  and  abject 
terror,  while  the  messengers  bearing  the  fatal  tidings 
were  going  to  and  returning  from  Constantinople. 
The  sedition  had  broken  out  a  few  days  before  Lent 
(387),  and  the  whole  of  the  forty  days  of  that  sacred 
season  were  indeed  days  of  fasting  and  humiliation 
to  the  luxurious  citizens  of  Antioch.  About  the 
middle  of  them  arrived  a  letter  from  the  Emperor, 
sharply  rebuking  the  Town  Council  for  allowing 
the  sedition  to  gain  such  a  height,  ordering  that  the 
Theatre,  the  Hippodrome,  and  the  Baths  should  all 
be  closed,  and  depriving  Antioch  of  the  rank,  which 
she  had  held  for  six  centuries,  as  capital  of  Syria. 
Shortly  after  appeared  two  Imperial  Commissioners 
— Caesarius  and  Ellebichus — charged  to  make  en- 
quiry into  the  recent  events ;  and  they  began  their 
enquiry  by  putting  all  the  Senators  of  Antioch  into 
close  confinement. 

The  two  commissioners,  however,  were  specimens  Pardon. 
of  the  best  class  of  Roman  officials,  men  utterly  un- 
like Lupicinus  and  Maximus.     They  marked  the 
sincere  repentance  and  the  agonised  prostration  of 
terror  which  pervaded  all  classes  in  Antioch,  and 


120 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[iv. 


387.  they  soon  allowed  it  to  appear  that  their  influence  at 
any  rate  would  be  exerted  on  the  side  of  mercy. 
Caesarius,  when  the  enquiry  was  completed,  set  off 
with  all  speed  to  Constantinople,  and  reached  that 
city  on  the  sixth  day  after  his  departure  from  Antioch. 
No  Turkish  courier  probably  could  now  traverse 
the  length  and  breadth  of  Asia  Minor  in  anything 
like  so  short  a  time.  Theodosius  listened  to  the 
arguments  of  Caesarius  in  favour  of  mercy,  to  the 
prayers  and  sighs  of  Bishop  Flavianus,  who  had 
come  to  intercede  on  behalf  of  his  flock,  and  granted 
a  complete  amnesty,  rescinding  also  his  previous 
decree  for  the  degradation  of  Antioch  from  the  rank 
of  capital  city.  This  letter,  carried  by  a  swift  mes- 
senger to  Ellebichus,  was  by  him  communicated  to 
the  citizens  of  Antioch,  who  received  it  with  shouts 
of  welcome  and  tears  of  joy.  Their  fifty  days  of 
mourning  were  ended,  and  Antioch,  the  light-hearted 
Paris  of  the  East,  was  herself  again. 

The  story  of  this  singular  insurrection  has  been 
preserved  for  us  by  the  orations  of  the  heathen 
sophist  Libanius  and  by  the  homilies  of  the  great 
Christian  preacher,  St.  John  Chrysostom,  at  that 
time  a  priest  at  Antioch,  afterwards  Patriarch  of 
Constantinople. 

Inmrrec-  The  insurrection  at  Antioch  displayed  the  character 
^Thessa  of  Theodosius  in  a  favourable  light,  as  a  strong  but 
lonica,  merciful  and  magnanimous  ruler  of  men.  Very  dif- 
39°'  ferent  was  the  effect  on  his  fame  of  the  insurrection 
which  broke  out  three  years  later  (390)  in  the  Mace- 
donian city  of  Thessalonica.    A  garrison  of  Gothic 


IV.] 


Theodosius. 


121 


foederati  was  quartered  in  this  important  city.  Al-  39°- 
ready  it  is  probable  that  many  causes  of  quarrel 
had  arisen  between  the  Thessalonians  and  their 
overbearing  but  under-educated  guests.  The  wrath 
grew  to  its  height  when  Botheric,  the  Gothic  general, 
shut  up  in  prison  a  certain  scoundrel  of  a  charioteer 
who  had  vilely  insulted  him.  At  the  next  races  the 
mob  of  Thessalonica  tumultously  demanded  the 
charioteer's  liberation,  and  when  Botheric  refused, 
rose  in  insurrection  and  slew  both  him  and  several 
magistrates  of  the  city.  There  was  no  such  direct 
insult  to  the  person  of  the  Emperor  as  at  Antioch, 
perhaps  no  such  prolonged  period  of  defiance  to 
authority ;  but  the  affair  reflected  deep  disgrace  on 
the  cruel,  childish,  show-loving  Eastern  provincials, 
and  if  the  chief  actors  in  it  had  been  ordered  off  to 
instant  execution,  Theodosius  would  only  have  acted 
with  praiseworthy  severity.  But  he  had  now  been  Brutal 
for  twelve  years  lord  of  the  world,  and  the  madness  venSeance- 
which  absolute  power  so  often  brings  with  it  had 
begun  to  work  in  his  brain.  In  a  frenzy  of  rage  at 
the  insult  offered  to  himself  in  the  person  of  his 
barbarian  general,  he  sent  his  orders  from  Milan 
(where  he  was  staying  when  the  tidings  reached  him) 
that  the  whole  city  of  Thessalonica  should  suffer  for 
the  misdeeds  of  its  ruffianly  mob.  The  soldiers 
surrounded  the  circus  where  the  citizens  were  as- 
sembled, watching  the  games  and  unsuspecting  of 
ill.  They  closed  the  gates,  marched  in  amongst  the 
densely-packed  spectators,  and  began  their  bloody 
work.    A  certain  number  of  heads  was  ordered  to 


122 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[iv. 


be  brought  to  the  officers,  as  if  they  had  been  thistles 
or  dandelions  to  be  gathered  out  of  the  fields.  Was 
it  7000  as  one  historian  says,  or  15,000,  as  another  ? 
It  matters  not  much  :  the  horror  of  the  thing  was  the 
brutal  indiscriminateness  of  the  massacre,  the  utter 
absence  of  any  attempt  to  separate  between  the 
innocent  and  the  guilty,  the  indifference  to  human 
life,  more  worthy  of  Tamerlane  and  his  pyramid  of 
skulls  than  of  an  Emperor  of  Rome. 

It  is  true  that  this  bloody  deed  was  afterwards 
repented  of  in  dust  and  ashes.  The  humiliation  and 
penitence  of  Theodosius,  his  self-abasement  before 
the  great  Christian  hero,  St.  Ambrose,  and  the  for- 
giveness which  he  at  last  received  from  him,  form 
a  well-known  page  in  church  history,  and  one 
which  I  do  not  propose  now  to  retrace.  But  I 
cannot  hold,  as  some  of  the  ecclesiastical  historians 
seem  to  do,  that  the  depth  of  the  Emperor's  subse- 
quent humility  hides  the  greatness  of  his  crime. 
That  he  should  have  been  even  tempted  to  such  a 
monstrous  abuse  of  his  absolute  power,  much  more 
that  he  should  have  yielded  to  the  temptation,  marks 
him  out  as  one  of  the  Emperors  who  were  unfit  to 
govern,  not  only  as  immeasurably  below  a  saint  like 
Marcus  Aurelius,  or  a  statesman  like  Trajan,  but 
almost  as  fit  to  be  classed  in  the  same  category  with 
Caligula,  Nero,  and  Commodus. 

We  return  to  our  more  special  subject,  the  rela- 
tion between  Theodosius  and  the  foederati.  Twice 
he  was  able  to  employ  his  Gothic  soldiers  with 


IV.] 


Theodosius. 


123 


striking  success  in  the  internal  struggles  of  the  383- 
Empire.  The  situation  was  thus  very  similar  to 
that  which  we  have  seen  in  our  own  day  in  our 
Indian  Empire,  when  the  Sikhs,  the  fierce  opponents 
of  the  English  Raj  in  1845,  became  its  stalwart 
defenders  in  the  terrible  Mutiny  of  1857. 

In  the  year  383  a  military  revolt  broke  out  in  Revolt  of 
Britain  against  the  young  Emperor  Gratian.    Our  trg°ftsJ^ 
island  was  ever  the  fruitful  seed-plot  of  these  mili-  3s3. 
tary  mutinies.    The  soldiers,  shut  up  in  their  camps 
on  our  solitary  moors,  and  deeming  themselves  cut 
off  from  the  civilised  world  \  probably  exaggerated 
every  hardship  of  their  service,  and  welcomed  any 
change  which  would  take  them  southwards,  were  it 
even  in  the  track  of  an  usurper  and  a  tyrant.  Per- 
haps, too,  there  was  something  then  as  now  in  the 
disposition  of  the  Celts  by  whom  they  were  sur- 
rounded, and  with  whom  many  of  them  had  inter- 
married, favourable  to  anarchy  and  fatal  to  that 
reverence  for  law  and  discipline  which  is  needed  to 
hold  together  either  an  army  or  a  state.  What- 
ever the  cause,  the  army  revolted  and  proclaimed 
Magnus  Clemens  Maximus,  Emperor.    He  was,  like  Elevation 
Theodosius,  a  native  of  Spain,  and  though  harsh  and  °fH^axt~ 
perhaps  rapacious,  a  man  of  ability  and  experience, 
not  unworthy  of  the  purple  if  he  had  come  to  it  by 
lawful  means2.    Gratian  on  his  side  had  evidently 
given  some  real  cause  for  dissatisfaction  to  his  sub- 

1  1  Penitus  toto  divisos  orbe  Britannos.' 

2  '  Vir  strenuus  et  probus  atque  Augusto  dignus,  nisi  contra  sacta- 
menti  fidem  per  tyrannidem  emersisset.'     (Historia  Miscella  xi.  16.) 


124 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[iv. 


383.  jects.  Ammianus,  who  was  a  good  judge  of  charac- 
^aults* 5  ter'  sa^s  °^  ^m  that  '  while  the  youthful  down  was 
yet  on  his  cheeks  he  showed  promise  of  emulating 
the  best  of  the  Emperors,  if  he  had  not  given  his 
mind  too  much  to  sport,  and  under  the  influence  of 
frivolous  companions  followed  too  much  the  example 
of  Commodus  in  his  dissipation  though  not  in  his 
cruelty.  He  delighted  to  pierce  the  greatest  pos- 
sible number  of  beasts  before  the  eyes  of  the  people, 
and  when  he  had  given  a  fatal  wound  to  each  one 
of  a  hundred  lions  let  loose  from  many  doors  all 
round  the  amphitheatre  (not  needing  to  hit  any 
beast  twice),  he  would  exult  as  if  he  were  something 
more  than  man.  Thus  he  would  spend  whole  days 
within  these  vast  preserves  which  were  called  vi- 
varia, slaying  savage  beasts  with  his  multitudinous 
arrows.  And  this  at  a  time  when  even  the  patient 
earnestness  of  a  Marcus  Aurelius  would  have  been 
all  too  little  for  the  sad  necessities  of  the  Empire  V 

But  there  was  another  grievance  besides  Gratian's 
love  for  sport,  and  that  was  his  fondness  for  the 
barbarians.  He,  too,  like  Theodosius,  had  his  petted 
barbarian  guard,  but  instead  of  being  Goths  they 
belonged  to  the  less  civilised  race  of  the  Alani.  We 
are  told  by  another  author 2  '  that  Gratian  neglected 
the  army  and  preferred  a  few  of  the  Alans,  whom  by 
lavish  pay  he  had  attracted  to  his  service,  to  the  old 
Roman  soldiery,  and  was  so  fascinated  by  the  com- 
panionship, and  one  might  almost  say  friendship  of 
these  barbarians,  that  he  sometimes  on  the  march 

1  xxxi.  io,  18  and  19.  2  Historia  Miscella  xii.  16. 


IV.] 


Theodosius. 


125 


even  adopted  their  dress.    By  all  this  he  aroused  383~7- 
the  hatred  of  the  soldiers  agairist  himself/ 

An  Emperor  of  barbarians,  an  Emperor  who  was 
spending  his  days  in  shooting  wild  beasts  while  the 
Empire  was  languishing  under  taxes  within  and  the 
attacks  of  savages  from  without, — that  was  the  aspect 
which,  with  many  noble  and  loveable  qualities, 
Gratian  bore  to  his  Western  subjects :  and  hence  it 
was  that  when  Maximus  with  the  army  of  Britain 
landed  in  Gaul,  he  shook  down  the  fabric  of  his 
power  without  difficulty.  Gratian,  finding  himself  Death  oj 
deserted  by  his  troops,  escaped  from  the  battle-field,  Gratian' 
but  was  overtaken  and  killed  at  Lyons. 

For  more  than  four  years  Maximus,  satisfied  with  Maximus 

dct]iTones 

ruling:  over  the  three  great  Western  provinces  which  yaienf{. 
had  fallen  to  the  share  of  Gratian,  maintained  at  nian  II, 
any  rate  the  appearance  of  harmony  with  his  two 
colleagues,  and  the  Concordia  Auggg  was  still  cap- 
able of  being  commemorated  on  the  Imperial  medals. 
At  length,  in  the  autumn  of  387,  Maximus  deemed 
that  the  time  had  come  for  grasping  the  whole 
Empire  of  the  West.  Lulling  to  sleep  the  sus- 
picions of  Valentinian  and  his  mother  by  embassies 
and  protestations  of  friendship,  he  crossed  the  Alps 
with  an  army  and  marched  towards  Aquileia,  where 
the  young  Emperor  was  then  dwelling  in  order  to 
be  as  near  as  possible  to  the  dominions  of  his 
friendly  colleague  and  protector.  Valentinian  did 
not  await  the  approach  of  his  rival,  but  going  down 
to  the  port  of  Grado,  took  ship  and  sailed  for  Thes- 
salonica,  his  mother  and  sisters  accompanying  him. 


126 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


The  Emperor  and  the  Senate  of  Constantinople 


cussed  the  present  position  of  affairs.    The  Senate 


Theodo-     seconded  the   entreaties   of  Valentinian   and  his 


mother,  and  cried  out  for  vengeance  on  the  mur- 
derer of  one  Emperor  and  the  despoiler  of  another. 
Theodosius,  who  was  sincerely  averse  to  war,  as  his 
detractors  said  through  indolence,  but  more  pro- 
bably through  that  knowledge  of  the  risks  and 
miseries  of  war  which  even  the  most  successful 
general  cannot  fail  to  acquire,  spoke  in  favour  of 
peace,  and  then  of  course  all  warlike  views  were 
hushed. 

Upon  this  Justina,  who  was  the  widow  of  two 
Emperors  and  in  whose  countenance  still  lingered 
the  traces  of  the  extraordinary  beauty  which  had 
fascinated  Valentinian  I,  fell  on  her  knees  before 
Theodosius  and  besought  him  not  to  allow  the 
murder  of  Gratian  to  remain  unavenged,  nor  the 
family  of  his  former  benefactor  to  be  utterly  ruined. 
And  then  she  pointed  to  her  daughter  Galla, 


who  was  bathed  in  tears,  lamenting  the  misfortunes 
of  her  house.  What  the  entreaties  of  the  mother 
might  have  failed  to  effect,  the  tears  of  the  daughter 
accomplished.  Theodosius,  whose  wife  Flaccilla 
had  died  two  years  before  (385),  took  Galla  for  his 
second  wife,  and  vowed  to  avenge  her  wrongs  and 
replace  her  brother  on  the  throne. 


Civil  War     He  was  some  time  in  preparing  for  the  campaign, 


'  Matre  pulchra  filia  pulchrior, ' 


between 


1  Magnentius  and  Valentinian  I, 


iv.] 


Theodosius. 


127 


but,  when  it  was  opened,  he  conducted  it  with  vigour  388. 
and  decision.     His  troops  pressed  up  the  Save  ^!TSrT 
valley,  defeated  those  of  Maximus  in  two  engage-  mus,  388. 
ments,  entered  Aemona  (Laybach)  in  triumph,  and 
soon  stood  before  the  walls   of  Aquileia,  behind 
which  Maximus  was  sheltering  himself.    The  city 
was  a  strong  and  almost  impregnable  one,  but  a 
mutiny  among  the  troops  of  Maximus  did  away  with 
the  necessity  for  a  siege.  The  soldiers  of  Theodosius  Defeat  and 
poured  into  the  city,  whose  gates  had  been  opened  Maximus. 
to  them  by  the  mutineers,  and   dragged  off  the 
usurper,   barefooted,  with  tied  hands,   in  slave's 
attire,  to  the  tribunal  of  Theodosius  and  his  young 
brother-in-law  at  the  third  milestone  from  the  city. 
After  Theodosius  had  in  a  short  harangue  re-  28  fuly, 
proached  him  with  the  evil  deeds  which  he  had  38i*' 
wrought  against   the   Roman   commonwealth,  he 
handed  him  over  to  the  executioner,  by  whom  he 
was  at  once  put  to  death. 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  rapid  and  suc- 
cessful movements  of  Theodosius  in  this  campaign 
were  due  in  part  to  the  well-trained  valour  of  his 
foederati.  We  have,  however,  a  more  distinct  allu- 
sion to  their  services  in  the  next  civil  war,  which 
was  fought  six  years  afterwards  on  almost  the  same 
battle-ground. 

On  the  overthrow  of  Maximus,  Theodosius  had  Valenti- 
with   generous  magnanimity  handed   over  to  Va-  ma* II,  . 

0  °  J  .     restored  ?n 

lentinian  II  the  whole  of  the  Western  Empire,  both  the  West. 
his  own  especial  share  and  that  which  had  formerly 
been  held  by  his  brother  Gratian.     The  young 


128 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[iv. 


388.  Emperor  was  now  seventeen  years  of  age :  his 
mother,  Justina,  had  died  apparently  on  the  eve  of 
Theodosius's  victory,  and  he  governed,  or  tried  to 
govern,  alone.  He  seems  to  have  taken  up  his 
residence  at  Trier,  the  defence  of  the  Gaulish 
provinces  being  doubtless  recognised  as  at  this  time 
the  chief  duty  of  an  Emperor  of  the  West.  But  the 
actual  functions  of  supreme  ruler  were  discharged, 
not  by  this  young  and  somewhat  pliable  Emperor, 

His  fac-     but  by  a  Frankish  veteran  who  stood  beside  his 

totumAr-  tunm^  moving  legions   and  appointing   and  dis- 

bogast. 

placing  generals  at  his  will.  I  mentioned  that 
during  the  sickness  of  Theodosius  the  war  in 
Thrace  was  successfully  conducted  by  two  Frankish 
lieutenants  of  Gratian,  by  name  Bauto  and 
Arbogast.  Bauto  died  about  the  year  385,  and 
from  that  time  onwards  supreme  power  in  the 
dominions  of  Valentinian  had  been  more  and  more 
accumulating  itself  in  the  hands  of  the  other  great 
Frankish  general,  Arbogast,  a  man  adored  by  his 
soldiers  for  his  valour  and  experience  in  war,  and 
for  his  noble  disdain  of  riches.  This  man  was 
apparently  true  to  the  Empire,  true  at  first  in  his 
own  rough  way  to  the  house  of  Valentinian.  He 
had  followed  the  young  Emperor  to  exile,  and  after 
the  victory  at  Aemona  it  was  his  hand  that  deprived 
the  young  Victor,  son  of  the  usurper,  of  life.  But 
knowing  his  infinite  superiority  in  all  the  arts  of 
war  and  government  to  the  young  Adonis  who  was 
nominally  his  master,  he  took  no  pains  to  conceal 
that   superiority,    and  sometimes  in  the  council 


IV.] 


Theodosins. 


129 


chamber  itself  openly  opposed  and  scoffed  at  the  392- 
proposals  of  the  Emperor.    In  short,  this  Frankish 
warrior  was  already  anticipating  by  three  centuries 
the  attitude  of  the  Frankish  Mayors  of  the  Palace 
towards  the  Merovingian  monarchs.    At  length  Va- 
lentinian,  unable  to  bear  the  barbarian's  insolence  Quarrels 
any  longer,  one  day  when  he  was  sitting  on  his 
imperial  throne,  summoning  up  as  much  sternness  nian  and 
as  he  could  into  his  boyish  countenance,  presented  ArboSasL 
Arbogast  with  a  written  dismissal  from  his  command 
as  Magister  Equitum.    With  calm  contempt  Arbogast 
tore  the  paper  in  pieces.    '  You  never  gave  me  this 
command/  said  he,  'nor  will  you  be  able  to  take  it 
from  me.'     Valentinian  drew  a  sword  against  the 
general  as  he  turned  to  depart,  but  the  attendant  to 
whom  it  belonged  checked  him  from  using  it.  Hear- 
ing the  struggle  Arbogast  returned  and  asked  what 
the  Emperor  had  been  trying  to  do.    '  To  slay  my- 
self,' moaned  the  miserable  Valentinian,  'because 
although  Emperor  I  have  no  power  V 

From  this  day  there  was  open  emmity  between  Death  of 
Valentinian  and  his  Master  of  the  Horse  :  and  not  Valentl~ 

man  11, 

long  after,  when  the  young  Emperor  was  bathing  in  15  May, 
the  Rhone,  near  Vienne,  some  of  the  servants  of392, 
Arbogast,  in  the  absence  of  his  body-guard  who  had 
gone  away  to  dinner,  rushed  upon  him  and  strangled 
him.  They  then  tied  a  handkerchief  round  his 
neck  and  hung  him  to  a  tree,  that  it  might  appear 
that  he  had  committed  sucide.    It  was  generally 

1  Combined  from  Zosimus  and  Philostorgius.    Possibly  the  two 
stories  relate  to  different  altercations. 

K 


i3o 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[IV. 


392-394- 


Eugenius 
Emperor, 
392-394. 


Death  of 
Galla,  394. 


Theodosius 
marches 
against 
Eugenius. 


understood,  however,  that  the  death  of  Valentinian 
was  in  truth  the  deed  of  Arbogast. 

The  Frankish  general,  who  durst  not  shock  the 
prejudices  of  the  Roman  world  by  himself  assuming 
the  purple,  hung  that  dishonoured  robe  upon  the 
shoulders  of  a  rhetorician,  a  confidant,  and  almost 
a  dependent  of  his  own,  named  Eugenius.  This 
man,  like  most  of  the  scholars  and  rhetoricians  of 
the  day,  had  not  abjured  the  old  faith  of  Hellas. 
As  Arbogast  also  was  a  heathen,  though  worshipping 
Teutonic  rather  than  Olympian  gods,  this  last 
revolution  looked  like  a  recurrence  to  the  days  of 
Julian,  and  threatened  the  hardly- won  supremacy 
of  Christianity.  Thus  not  only  the  sad  voice  of  his 
wife  Galla  pleading  for  vengeance  on  her  brother's 
murderers,  but,  even  more,  the  pious  exhortations  of 
all  Christian  bishops  called  on  Theodosius  to  rescue 
the  Western  Empire  from  the  hands  of  the  sophist 
and  the  barbarian.  Yet  his  preparations  had  to  be 
long  and  careful,  for  he  was  aware  that  in  Arbogast 
he  would  meet  a  general  who  knew  as  much  of  the 
art  of  war  as  himself,  perhaps  we  might  say  that  he 
should  meet  the  greatest  captain  of  the  age.  He  left 
not  Thrace  till  June,  394,  nearly  two  years  after  the 
death  of  Valentinian,  and  meanwhile,  on  the  very 
eve  of  his  departure  his  young  wife  Galla  died, 
leaving  a  little  daughter,  whose  name  afterwards  was 
famous  in  the  story  of  the  Empire,  Galla  Placidia. 

Giving  but  one  day  to  sorrow  and  the  next 
to  vengeance,  Theodosius  marched  north-west- 
wards, as  before,  up  the  valley  of  the  Save,  and 


iv.] 


Theodosius. 


to  the  city  of  Aemona.  Not  there  did  he  meet  his  394. 
foes,  but  at  a  place  about  thirty  miles  off,  half-way 
between  Aemona  and  Aquileia,  where  the  Julian 
Alps  are  crossed,  and  where  a  little  stream  called 
the  Frigidus  (now  the  Wipbach)  burst  suddenly 
from  a  limestone  hill.  Here,  then,  the  battle  was 
joined  between  Eugenius  with  his  Frankish  patron 
and  Theodosius  with  his  20,000  Gothic  foederati1 
and  the  rest  of  the  army  of  the  East.  Gainas,  Saul, 
Bacurius,  Alaric  were  the  chief  leaders  of  the  Teu- 
tonic troops. 

The  first  day  of  battle  fell  heavily  on  the  foederati  Battle  of 
of  Theodosius,  half  of  whom  were  left  dead  upon  the  the  Frt~ 

'  r  gidus, 

field.  It  seemed  as  if  the  West  were  going  once  more  5  and  6 
to  triumph  over  the  East,  as  if  heathenism  might  even  Se^u  3^4- 
once  more  gain  the  ascendant  over  Christianity. 
That  night,  however,  in  prayer  Theodosius  had  a 
vision  of  the  Apostles  John  and  Philip,  who  cheered 
him  on  with  the  assurance  of  victory.  Next  day 
Theodosius  succeeded  in  detaching  part  of  the  army 
of  his  rival  from  their  allegiance ;  and  even  the  ele- 
ments seemed  eager  to  aid  his  victory.  The  im- 
petuous Bora,  a  wind  well  known  in  that  region, 
sprang  up  from  the  hills  in  the  rear  of  his  army  and 
carried  their  arrows  and  their  javelins  with  resistless 
•  force  into  the  ranks  of  the  enemy,  whose  own  missiles 
recoiled  helplessly  on  themselves.  The  battle  was 
won  after  a  terrible  struggle.  Eugenius  was  taken 
prisoner  and  carried  bound  into  the  presence  of 
Theodosius,  who  upbraided  him  with  his  heathenism 

1  Jordanes  xxviii. 
K  2 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[iv. 


394- 

Death  of 
Eugenius 
and  Ar- 
bogast. 


Death  of 
Theodo- 
sius, 17 
Jan.  395. 


Character 
of  Theodo- 
sius. 


and  his  share  in  the  murder  of  Valentinian. 
While  he  was  grovelling  at  the  proud  conqueror's 
feet  and  begging  for  mercy,  a  soldier  cut  off  his  head 
and  carried  it  round  the  field  of  battle  on  a  pole  to 
show  the  vanquished  army  that  their  Emperor  was 
slain.  Arbogast  wandered  about  for  some  days 
among  the  rugged  mountain-defiles,  and  then  fell 
upon  his  sword  and  perished. 

Theodosius,  who  was  still  in  the  prime  of  life,  had 
now  indeed  'the  rule  of  the  world/ without  a  rival  or 
a  colleague  except  his  own  boyish  sons.  The  Church 
and  the  federated  Goths,  two  of  the  most  powerful 
forces  in  the  Empire,  were  both  devotedly  attached 
to  him ;  and  the  Provincials,  though  groaning  under 
the  weight  of  the  taxes  which  he  imposed,  feared,  and 
perhaps  admired  him.  Had  his  life  been  prolonged 
as  it  well  might  have  been  for  twenty  or  thirty  years 
longer,  many  things  might  have  gone  differently 
in  the  history  of  the  world.  But,  little  more  than 
four  months  after  the  victory  of  the  Frigidus,  Theo- 
dosius died  of  dropsy  at  Milan,  his  constitution  being 
prematurely  worn  out  by  the  hardships  of  his  last 
campaign,  and  possibly  by  the  high  feasting  and 
revelry  which  had  resounded  through  his  palace  at 
Constantinople.  He  had  probably  not  yet  completed 
his  fiftieth  year. 

The  character  of  Theodosius  is  one  of  the  most 
perplexing  in  history.  The  Church  historians  have 
hardly  a  word  of  blame  for  him  except  in  the  matter 
of  the  massacre  of  Thessalonica,  and  that,  as  has 
been  said,  seems  to  be  almost  atoned  for  in  their 


iv.]  Theodosius.  1 33 

eyes  by  its  perpetrator's  penitent  submission  to  eccle- 
siastical censure.  On  the  other  hand,  the  heathen 
historians,  represented  by  Zosimus,  condemn  in  the 
most  unmeasured  terms  his  indolence,  his  love  of 
pleasure,  his  pride,  and  hint  at  the  scandalous  im- 
morality of  his  life.  Varying  a  similar  saying  with 
reference  to  Constantine,  we  might  say  that  he  who 
believes  all  the  evil  that  is  said  of  Theodosius  by 
Socrates,  and  all  the  good  that  is  said  of  him  by 
Zosimus,  will  not  go  far  wrong.  But  this  takes  us 
only  a  little  way,  for  the  blame  and  the  praise  are 
both  infinitesimal. 

He  had  one  great  work  to  do,  the  reconciliation 
of  the  Goths  to  the  Empire,  and  he  did  that  work 
well.  It  is  perhaps  unfair  to  judge  of  it  by  the  slender- 
ness  of  its  permanent  results,  since  his  early  death 
may  have  been  the  chief  cause  of  its  failure.  But  he 
was  certainly  passionate,  egotistic,  cruel.  He  spared 
not  the  pockets  of  his  subjects,  and  his  reign,  like  a 
heavy  wheat-crop,  exhausted  the  energies  of  his 
Empire.  It  is  the  fashion  to  call  him  the  Great,  and 
we  may  admit  that  he  has  as  good  a  right  to  that 
title  as  Louis  XIV,  a  monarch  whom  in  some  re- 
spects he  pretty  closely  resembles.  But  it  seems  to 
me  that  it  would  be  safer  to  withhold  this  title  from 
both  sovereigns,  and  to  call  them,  not  the  Great,  but 
the  Magnificent. 


LECTURE  V. 


Alaric. 


Arc  adz  us 
and  Hono- 
rius,  sons 
of  Theodo- 
sius. 

Their  in~ 
capacity. 


On  the  death  of  Theodosius  (395)  his  two  sons, 
Arcadius  and  Honorius,  aged  respectively  eighteen 
and  ten,  succeeded  to  'the  rule  of  the  world/  Arca- 
dius dwelling  at  Constantinople  and  ruling  the 
Eastern  portion,  while  the  Western  fell  to  the  share 
of  Honorius,  who  at  this  time  generally  dwelt  at 
Milan.  Arcadius  died  in  the  year  408,  at  the  age  of 
thirty-one  ;  Honorius  in  423,  at  the  age  of  thirty- 
nine.  These  two  men  were  thus  nominally  at  the 
head  of  human  affairs  during  some  of  the  most  pro- 
foundly interesting  and  important  events  that  have 
happened  in  the  history  of  the  world  ;  yet  few  men 
have  ever  by  their  own  force  of  character  or  strength 
of  intellect  exercised  less  influence  on  the  destinies 
of  the  human  race.  Theodosius,  with  all  his  faults, 
interests  the  student  of  his  reign  :  he  was  brilliant, 
forceful,  and  he  makes  a  mark  on  the  history  of  his 
time.  The  dulness  of  his  sons'  characters  is  so 
portentous,  that  after  the  lapse  of  a  millennium  and 
a  half  the  Muse  of  History  still  yawns  at  the  re- 
membrance of  them.  Arcadius  had  a  beautiful 
Frankish  wife,  and  left  a  son  of  artistic  temperament, 


v.]  Alaric.  1 35 

and  four  pious  daughters.    Honorius  married  his 

deceased  wife's  sister  and  left  no  family,  but  was 

fond  of  keeping  pigeons.    These  are  pretty  nearly 

all  the  facts  that  it  is  possible  to  ascertain  or  to 

remember  out  of  the  drizzling   dulness  of  their 

personal  history. 

Theodosius,  who  probably  saw  the  weakness  of  Adminis- 

character  of  his  sons,  and  who  was  leaving  them  at  t^t^n  °f 

&  Rufinus 

an  age  when  even  strong  and  capable  natures  would  and  Sti- 
have  required  much  help  and  guidance,  entrusted  luho' 
the  guardianship  of  the  lads,  and  the  virtual  regency 
of  the  Empire,  to  Rufinus  and  Stilicho.  The  former, 
with  the  rank  of  Praetorian  Prefect,  administered 
the  realm  of  Arcadius ;  the  latter,  as  Magister  Utri- 
usque  Militiae,  governed  the  army  and  the  people  of 
Honorius. 

These  two  men  resembled  one  another  in  one 
quality — an  inordinate  love  of  money,  whether  justly 
or  unjustly  acquired.  In  all  other  respects  their 
characters  were  utterly  dissimilar.  Stilicho,  though 
grasping  and  perhaps  somewhat  coarse-fibred,  was  a 
hero  and  a  patriot ;  Rufinus  (whom  we  unfortunately 
know  only  by  the  descriptions  of  his  bitter  enemies) 
may  have  had  some  administrative  ability,  but  must 
have  been  a  bad  specimen  even  of  the  corrupt 
bureaucracy  of  Constantinople. 

Dissimilar  as  was  the  character  of  the  two  men, 
so  also  was  their  origin  and  training.  Stilicho  was 
apparently  of  pure  Teutonic  extraction,  the  son  of  a 
Vandal  chief  who  had  commanded  some  barbarian 
auxiliaries  in  the  army  of  the  Emperor  Valens. 


\$6  Dynasty  of  Theodosius.  [v. 

His  tall  and  handsome  presence  ha*d  commended 
him  to  the  favour  of  Serena,  the  favourite  niece  and 
trusted  counsellor  of  Theodosius.  His  marriage 
with  so  near  a  relative  of  the  Emperor  naturally  led 
to  his  speedy  promotion.  His  employment  on  an 
embassy  to  the  Persian  king  was  followed  by  high 
military  command.  He  showed  indisputable  talents 
for  war  in  several  campaigns  against  the  barbarians, 
and,  some  years  before  the  death  of  Theodosius,  was 
raised  to  the  highest  of  all  military  dignities — that  of 
Magister  Utriusque  Militiae  (Commander-in-Chief  of 
Infantry  and  Cavalry). 

Of  the  early  life  of  Rufinus  we  know  but  little. 
He  was  born  at  Elusa,  a  little  town  in  the  south- 
west corner  of  Gaul.  He  went  to  Constantinople, 
and  there,  by  his  obsequiousness,  his  perseverance, 
and  doubtless  also  by  his  aptitude  for  the  work  of 
administration,  succeeded  in  climbing  from  step  to 
step  of  the  official  ladder.  One  or  two  old  and  faithful 
servants  of  the  Empire  (Tatianus  and  Proculus)  who 
stood  above  him  in  rank,  were  cast  down  by  his 
well-timed  accusations  of  disloyalty,  and  at  length 
the  obscure  Gaulish  Provincial  blazed  forth  to  the 
world  as  Praetorian  Prefect  of  the  East — one  of 
the  wealthiest  men  in  the  Empire,  a  man  who 
aspired  to  wear  the  diadem  himself  as  colleague 
of  Arcadius,  and  to  obtain  the  Emperor's  hand  in 
marriage  for  his  daughter.  Thus  while  Stilicho's 
might  be  said  to  be  the  typical  career  of  a  robust, 
handsome,  and  warlike  Teuton  in  the  service  of  the 
Empire,  the  career  of  Rufinus  was  the  equally 


v.] 


Alaric. 


137 


typical  career  of  a  clever,  pushing,  and  unscrupulous 
Provincial. 

Between  the  two  administrators  of  the  realm —  Divergence 
Rufinus  and  Stilicho — there  was  no  cordiality,  no  b^™2nd 
chance  of  well-concerted  action  for  the  good  of  the  West. 
Empire.  In  fact,  quite  independently  of  the  per- 
sonal characters  of  the  two  men,  the  interests  of  the 
two  divisions  of  the  Empire  were  now  beginning 
manifestly  to  diverge.  The  older  Rome  looked 
down  upon  the  new  Rome  by  the  Bosphorus  as  a 
mere  Greek  city,  the  home  of  sophists  and  chat- 
terers; while  Constantinople  regarded  the  city  of 
the  Tiber,  with  its  mouldering  palaces,  its  desolate 
Campagna,  its  still  half-heathen  Senate,  as  a  great 
stranded  hulk,  unfit  any  longer  to  bear  the  precious 
freight  of  Empire.  This  divergence  between  the 
hopes  and  wishes  of  the  East  and  West,  a  divergence 
which  was  often  on  the  point  of  becoming  actual 
hostility,  was  wider  for  the  first  fifteen  years  after 
the  death  of  Theodosius  than  for  a  considerable 
time  before  or  after  that  interval,  and  promoted  not 
a  little  the  success  of  the  barbarian  movement  against 
the  Roman  State. 

That  movement  began  very  shortly  after  Theo-  Alaric 
dosius  was  laid  in  his  grave.  It  was  in  all  proba-  ^^f^^ 
bility  in  the  spring  of  the  year  395  that  the  Visi- 
goths in  Moesia  raised  the  young  Alaric  upon  a 
shield,  and  with  joyful  shouts  acclaimed  him  as  their 
king.  We  have  already  noticed  this  young  Gothic 
chief  as  commanding  a  troop  in  the  army  of  Theodo- 
sius at  the  battle  of  the  Frigidus,  and  that  is  in  fact 


138 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[V. 


all  that  we  know  about  him  up  to  this  date,  except 
that  he  was  born  (probably  between  360  and  370)  in 
the  island  of  Peuce  at  the  mouth  of  the  Danube,  and 
that  he  was  either  himself  surnamed  Baltha  (the 
Bold),  or  belonged  to  a  clan  of  kings  or  chieftains 
who  bore  that  name.  As  the  Gothic  historian  says  : 
'As  soon  as  Alaric  was  created  king,  deliberating 
with  his  people  he  persuaded  them  rather  by  their 
own  labour  to  seek  for  kingdoms  than  quietly  to  lie 
down  in  subjection  to  strangers.'  In  other  words  he 
decided,  and  persuaded  them  to  decide,  to  abandon 
the  easy  but  inglorious  position  of  foederati,  and 
cutting  themselves  loose  from  the  old  and  decaying 
Empire,  to  hew  out  new  realms  for  themselves  with 
their  own  trusty  broadswords.  Towards  this  deci- 
sion he  was  no  doubt  partly  guided  by  what  he  had 
himself  seen,  when  in  the  Imperial  service,  of  the 
weakness  of  the  legions,  the  unwarlike  character  of 
the  Provincials  of  the  Empire,  the  oppressions  of 
the  tax-gatherers  which  caused  even  the  barbarians 
to  seem  welcome  as  deliverers  from  their  yoke ; 
above  all  by  what  he,  and  every  officer  of  rank  in 
the  Roman  army,  knew  of  the  discord  and  jealousy 
between  the  two  chief  ministers  of  the  Empire. 

The  first  blows  of  Alaric  and  his  Goths  were 
struck  at  the  Eastern  Empire.  This  was  natural 
enough,  since  they  were  themselves  settled  within 
it :  but  there  was  another  reason  for  the  choice. 
The  army  which  Theodosius  had  led  with  him  across 
the  Julian  Alps  seems  not  to  have  been  dismissed  to 
its  Eastern  cantonments  during  the  few  months 


v.]  Alaric.  139 

between  the  bat'tle  of  the  Frigidus  and  his  death.  395. 
It  and  the  troops  of  Eugenius  were  now  all  col- 
lected in  the  north  of  Italy  under  the  orders  of 
Stilicho,  who  was  thus  in  another  than  the  official 
sense  M agister  Utriusque  Militiae,  since  both  the 
conquering  and  the  conquered  army  of  the  late 
campaign  received  the  watchword  from  him.  A 
singular  position  certainly,  and  one  which  excuses 
some  things  otherwise  difficult  to  justify  in  the  con- 
duct of  Arcadius  and  his  minister. 

Alaric,  then,  with  his  Gothic  followers  marched  Alaric 
first  towards  Constantinople.    Perhaps  he  had  some  ^j^Eastem 
hopes  of  taking  the  city  by  surprise,  but  if  so  he  was  Empire 
disappointed.    Rufinus,  who,  Provincial  as  he  was, 
professed  a  certain  fondness  for  the  barbarians  and 
imitated  their  dress  and  accoutrements,  seems  to 
have  sought  an  interview  with  the  Gothic  king,  and 
suggested  to  him  that  instead  of  undertaking  a  hope- 
less siege  he  would  do  well  to  turn  his  steps  south- 
wards, where  he  would  reap  abundance  of  spoil  from 
the  still  undevastated  plains  of  Greece.    Alaric  ac- 
cepted the  suggestion,  and  marched  through  Mace- 
donia into  Thessaly.    There,  however,  his  course 
was  stayed  for  a  while  by  the  arrival  of  Stilicho, 
who,  loyally  fulfilling  the  behest  of  the  dying  Theo- 
dosius,  had  come  with  an  army  to  deliver  the  in- 
vaded Empire  from  its  foe.    Before  manoeuvres  had  Stilicho 
ceased  and  hard  fighting  had  begun,  there  came  *%%£%ae 
strange,  and  at  first  sight  incomprehensible,  message  invasion. 
from  the  Eastern  Court :  '  Let  Stilicho  withdraw  the 
legions  of  Honorius  within  the  limits  of  his  master's 


140 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[v. 


395-  Empire,  and  let  the  legions  of  the  East  be  sent  to 
their  proper  quarters  at  Constantinople/  Loyally, 
but  sadly,  Stilicho  obeyed  the  command,  and  thus 
the  campaign  of  395  closed,  leaving  Alaric  in  undis- 
puted possession  of  the  Greek  peninsula.  No  Leo- 
nidas  with  his  Three  Hundred  defended  now  Ther- 
mopylae, not  even  the  easily  held  Isthmus  of  Corinth 
Alaric  in  was  occupied  by  troops.  All  over  the  sacred  places 
Greece.  Qf  Qrecjan  story,  Delphi,  Corinth,  Argos,  Sparta, 
the  tall  barbarians  swarmed.  Only  Athens  seems 
to  have  escaped  comparatively  unharmed,  a  deli- 
verance which  the  heathen  historian1  attributes  to 
the  fact  that  when  Alaric  approached  the  city  he 
saw  Athene  Promachus,  in  such  guise  as  she  is 
represented  in  her  statue,  going  round  about  its 
towers,  and  Achilles,  the  hero,  such  as  Homer 
painted  him  in  his  wrath  for  the  death  of  Patroclus, 
standing  before  the  walls.  Those  who  doubt  the 
truth  of  these  apparitions  may  accept  the  theory  that 
the  Acropolis  was  too  strong  to  be  taken,  and  that 
Alaric,  who  was  no  mere  barbarous  destroyer,  was 
induced,  partly  by  a  heavy  ransom  and  partly  by 
reverence  for  her  old  renown,  to  refrain  from  sack- 
ing a  city  which  was  illustrious  and  venerable  rather 
than  wealthy  or  strategically  important. 
March  of  Meanwhile  the  troops  which  had  been  ordered  to 
the  recalled  Constantinople,   and  which  were   commanded  by 

troops  to  r    '  J 

Constanti-  Gainas  the  Goth,  had  done  a  strange  and  fearful 
nople.       deed.    They  loved  Stilicho,  and  cursed  the  order 
issued   by  the  officials   at   Constantinople  which 
1  Zosimus  v.  6. 


v.]  A  lark.  141 

parted  them  from  his  standards.  Everywhere,  as  395. 
they  marched  through  the  Empire  they  heard  exe- 
crations against  the  avarice  and  arrogance  of  the 
Gaulish  upstart,  who  presumed,  forsooth,  to  put 
himself  forward  as  a  suitable  colleague  for  the  Em- 
peror. And,  most  important  of  all,  their  leader, 
Gainas  the  Goth,  aspired  to  play  at  Constantinople 
the  same  part  which  Stilicho  the  Vandal  was  playing 
at  Milan.  The  soldiers  said  to  one  another  that 
when  Rufinus  met  them  at  Constantinople  he  should 
have  a  reception  that  he  little  expected. 

When  they  reached  the  Capital  they  were  drawn  The  re- 
up  in  a  great  plain  near  the  city,  and  Arcadius,  with  mew' 
Rufinus  by  his  side,  came  thither  to  review  them. 
The  two  stood  upon  a  high  platform,  conspicuous  to 
all,  and  those  who  were  nearest  could  see  Rufinus 
plucking  the  Emperor's  mantle  and  evidently  de- 
siring him  to  fulfil  some  promise  which  he  had  made 
and  to  utter  some  oration  to  the  army.  In  this 
oration,  could  it  have  been  delivered,  the  simple- 
minded  Arcadius,  who  would  have  done  anything 
which  his  minister  commanded,  was  to  have  pre- 
sented Rufinus  to  the  army  as  his  colleague  in  the 
Empire.  Then,  had  the  programme  been  fulfilled, 
the  soldiers  would  have  clashed  their  swords  upon 
their  shields  and  shouted  'Ave  Imperator':  the 
minister  would  have  come  forward  and  offered  them 
a  liberal  donative,  and  Rufinus  Augustus  would 
have  struck  his  coins  commemorating  his  Justice, 
his  Temperance,  and  the  Concord  of  the  Emperors. 

Such  was  the  programme  of  the  day's  proceedings,  jj^^ 


142 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[v. 


but  what  actually  occurred  was  very  different  from 
this.  While  the  promised  oration  was  still  lingering 
on  the  lips  of  the  scared  and  helpless  Emperor,  the 
army  stretched  forth  both  its  wings  and  folded  the 
high  tribunal  in  a  narrower  and  ever  narrower  em- 
brace. Threatening  gestures  were  made,  and  murmurs, 
not  of  acclamation,  were  heard.  Soon  the  dreadful 
truth  flashed  upon  Rufinus  that  he  was  surrounded, 
not  by  friends  eager  to  be  his  subjects,  but  by 
enemies  thirsting  for  his  blood.  A  soldier  stepped 
forth  from  the  ranks,  and  mounting  the  platform, 
thrust  him  through  with  his  sword,  saying,  'With 
this  sword  Stilicho  strikes  thee/  Then  the  bar- 
barians and  the  barbarised  Roman  soldiers  carried 
the  head  of  Rufinus  round  the  city  on  a  pole,  strewed 
his  limbs  in  fragments  over  the  fields,  and  showed 
to  every  passer-by  the  dead  hand  opening  and  clos- 
ing upon  imaginary  coins,  while  his  mock  courtiers 
shouted  'Give,  give  to  the  Insatiable/ 

Even  the  heavy  soul  of  Arcadius  must  have  felt 
some  stirrings  of  horror  and  resentment  at  such  a 
tragedy  enacted  in  his  own  sacred  presence,  but  he 
passed  at  once  under  the  dominion  of  other  masters 
whose  fortunes  we  cannot  here  follow.  Gainas  the 
Goth,  Eutropius  the  Eunuch,  Eudoxia  the  beautiful 
Empress,  daughter  of  the  Frankish  general  Bauto, 
kept  up  a  vivid  game  of  Court  intrigue,  and  disputed 
with  varying  success  for  the  chief  place  in  that 
empty  chamber  which  represented  the  mind  of  the 
Emperor. 

We  return  to  Alaric  and  his  invasion  of  the  Pelo- 


v.] 


A  lark. 


143 


ponnesus.  Any  dreams  which  he  may  have  nourished  396. 
of  establishing  his  kingdom  by  the  banks  of  the  faw/>ai<m 
Eurotas  or  Cephissus  were  dispelled  by  the  second  of  Stilicho 
appearance  of  Stilicho,  who,  this  time  apparently  at  ajj"™?f 
the  earnest  request  of  Arcadius,  brought  the  army  of  396. 
Honorius  for  the  deliverance  of  Greece.    No  great 
battle  was  fought,  but  Stilicho,  who  was  evidently  a 
great  master  of  strategy,  penned  up  his  antagonist  in 
the  valleys  of  Arcadia.    From  this  difficult  position, 
however,  he  allowed  him  to  escape,  whether  through 
mere  carelessness,  through  fear  of  driving  a  powerful 
foe  to  despair,  by  a  tacit  agreement  that  if  liberated 
he  should  at  once  evacuate  Greece,  or  from  what 
other  motive  it  is  impossible  now  to  say.  The 
enemies  of  Stilicho  always  asserted  that  both  on  this 
and  other  occasions  he  refrained   from  crushing 
Alaric  when  he  had  the  power  to  do  so,  in  order 
that  he,  as  the  only  general  who  could  successfully 
cope  with  him,  might  never  find  his  services  super- 
fluous. 

On  evacuating  Greece,  Alaric  with  his  Goths  did  Alaric  as 
not  relapse  into  the  position  of  a  Fritigern  or  an  Roman 

r  r  0  governor  oj 

Athanaric.    Another  plan  for  the  future  had  now  Illyricum. 

opened  itself  before  him.  As  the  time  was  not  yet 
come  for  conquering  kingdoms  he  would  accept  once 
more,  in  seeming,  the  position  of  a  captain  of  foe- 
derati,  but  in  such  circumstances  as  to  be  still  practi- 
cally independent  of  the  Empire.  The  part  of  the 
Prefecture  of  Illyricum  which  had  fallen  to  the 
share  of  Arcadius  consisted  in  its  northern  portion 
of  the  so-called  Diocese  of  Dacia,  nearly  correspond- 


144 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[v. 


ing  to  the  present  kingdoms  of  Servia  and  Bosnia. 
Over  this  eastern  Illyricum  Alaric  was  placed  as 
governor  by  the  ministers  of  Arcadius.  The  precise 
official  title  which  he  bore  is  not  mentioned.  He 
may  have  been  Vicarius  Daciae  or  Dux  Daciae  et 
Moesiae  Primae :  but  his  power  is  undoubted.  For 
396-400.  the  next  four  or  five  years  he  wielded  all  the 
enormous  powers,  both  civil  and  military,  of  a 
Roman  Imperial  governor.  He  enlisted  recruits, 
he  managed  arsenals,  he  collected  taxes,  though 
what  proportion  of  the  taxes  so  collected  found  its 
way  into  the  Treasury  of  Byzantium  no  historian 
has  told  us. 

Advan-         The  especial  advantage  to  Alaric  of  his  position  in 

tagesofthis  ^s  corner  0f  Ulyricum  was  that  it  enabled  him  to 
position.  * 

profit  to  the  full  by  the  discord  existing  between  the 

two  sections  of  the  Empire,  and  at  his  pleasure  to 
threaten  either.  He  could  with  almost  equal  ease 
move  southwards  upon  Macedon  and  Thrace  and 
threaten  Constantinople,  or  north-westwards  to  the 
Julian  Alps,  and  so  descend  into  Italy.  This  ad- 
vantage is  emphatically  alluded  to  by  a  contemporary 
poet  \  who  represents  Stilicho  as  saying  of  him — 

'  Discord  'twixt  East  and  West  and  mutual  wrong, 
Not  his  own  strength,  has  shielded  him  so  long  ; 
While  he,  deceitful,  pledged  his  faith  to  both, 
And  sold  to  each  by  turns  his  perjured  oath.' 

Yet  doubtless  during  these  years  of  repose  his 
thoughts  were  turning  with  increased  frequency  to 
the  West  rather  than  to  the  East.    He  knew,  none 

1  Claudian,  De  Bello  Getico  565-7. 


v.] 


Alaric. 


145 


better,  the  matchless  strength  of  the  situation  of 
Constantinople.  He  suspected,  if  he  did  not  know, 
the  comparative  weakness  of  Rome.  Moesia  and 
Thrace  had  been  wandered  over  for  years  by  the 
wasting  bands  of  his  countrymen,  while  Italy,  so 
long  the  wealthy  mistress  of  the  world,  was  still  un- 
ravaged.  Above  all  he  had  already  begun  to  hear  a 
voice — like  that  which  other  makers  of  history,  beings 
such  as  Mohammed,  Joan  of  Arc,  Savonarola  listened 
to — telling  them  of  great  deeds  set  before  them  which 
they  should  one  day  accomplish.  And  this  voice — 
call  it  by  what  name  we  may,  it  is  vouched  for  by 
contemporary  evidence  before  its  prediction  was  ac- 
complished— said  ever  in  his  ears,  'Alaric,  delay  not. 
Thou  shalt  penetrate  to  the  City'1 — the  awful  and 
still  inviolate  majesty  of  Rome. 

At  length  in  the  year  400  the  thunder-cloud  burst.  Alaric  s 
Alaric,  with  the  whole  nation  which  obeyed  him,  the^st  zfTa 

'  J  '         ston  of 

women  and  children  in  the  great  Gothic  waggons,  Italy, 
the  warriors  on  their  war-horses,  moved  slowly  up  4°°-4°3- 
the  valley  of  the  Save,  crossed  the  Julian  Alps,  and 
by  the  way  which  he  had  learned  when  he  rode  in 
the  train  of  Theodosius,  descended  upon  Italy.  At 
the  same  time,  there  is  reason  to  think,  another  troop 
of  Goths,  possibly  belonging  to  the  Ostrogothic  sec- 
tion of  the  people,  entered  Italy  under  the  leadership 
of  Radagaisus,  but  of  their  movements  we  have  no 
information,  and  even  the  fact  of  their  invasion  is 
not  generally  admitted  by  historians. 

1      '  Rumpe  omnes,  Alarice,  moras.    Hoc  impiger  anno 
Alpibus  Italiae  ruptis,  penetrabis  ad  Urban? 

Claudian,  De  Bello  Getico,  545-6. 
L 


146 


Dynasty  of  Tkeodosius. 


[v. 


400-402. 


Honorius 
retires  to 
Ravenna. 


402-752. 


Battle  of 
Pollentia. 


Of  the  three  or  four  years  (400-403)  that  Alaric 
spent  in  Italy  during  this  invasion,  we  have  the 
slenderest  and  most  tantalisingly  imperfect  informa- 
tion from  our  authorities.  We  can  say  certainly  that 
he  did  not  reach  Rome,  probably  did  not  cross  the 
Apennines.  There  are  dim  rumours  of  a  battle,  a 
Roman  defeat,  somewhere  near  Aquileia.  Then 
there  is  an  inexplicable  delay.  During  the  whole  of 
the  year  401  Alaric  appears  to  linger  in  Venetia  and 
the  valley  of  the  Po,  while  Stilicho  is  fighting  with 
some  enemies  (possibly  Radagaisus  and  his  Ostro- 
goths) in  Raetia,  and  drawing  in  troops  from  the 
Rhine,  and  even  from  Britain,  for  the  defence  of  the 
menaced  capital.  It  was  at  this  time  that  the  Twen- 
tieth Legion  was  withdrawn  from  the  cantonments 
which  it  had  for  centuries  occupied  at  Chester,  but 
to  which  it  never  returned. 

The  Emperor  Honorius  seems  to  have  been  be- 
sieged by  Alaric  either  at  Milan  or  the  not  distant 
city  of  Asta.  If  thus  menaced,  he  at  any  rate 
sustained  no  actual  injury;  but  the  shock  to  his 
Imperial  nerves  of  seeing  the  yellow-haired  barba- 
rians under  the  walls  of  his  city  had  been  so 
severe  that  he  migrated  to  Ravenna,  which  strong 
city,  effectually  sheltered  from  every  land-attack  by 
the  network  of  rivers  and  canals  which  surrounded 
it,  was  from  henceforth  for  three  centuries  and  a  half 
the  regular  residence  of  Roman  Emperors,  Ostro- 
gothic  Kings,  and  Byzantine  Exarchs. 

At  last,  at  Eastertide  in  the  year  402,  the  armies 
of  Stilicho  and  Alaric  met  in  battle  at  Pollentia,  a 


v.] 


Alaric. 


147 


city  of  what  is  now  Piedmont,  about  twenty  miles  402-403. 
south-east  of  Turin.  The  accounts  of  the  battle  are 
very  conflicting,  but  it  was  probably  a  defeat,  though 
not  a  decisive  defeat,  of  the  Goths.  The  advantage 
was  gained  by  a  piece  of  sharp  practice  which  was 
hardly  worthy  of  the  troops  of  a  Christian  Emperor. 
It  was  Good  Friday,  and  Alaric — an  Arian,  but  a4^A'-4°2- 
zealous  Christian — was  celebrating  the  great  event 
of  Calvary  in  the  usual  manner,  and  not  dreaming 
of  battles,  when  one  of  Stilicho's  officers,  an  Alan 
and  a  heathen,  named  Saulus,  led  an  impetuous 
charge  of  cavalry  against  the  Gothic  army,  and  com- 
pelled it  to  turn  from  prayer  to  fighting.  Saulus 
himself  fell  at  the  very  beginning  of  the  engagement, 
and  the  cavalry  wavered  ;  but  Stilicho  and  the  legions 
of  the  centre  restored  the  battle,  and,  perhaps,  won 
the  victory.  But  that  the  barbarian  should  have 
been  forced  against  his  will  to  fight  on  the  most 
solemn  fast-day  of  the  Christian  calendar  was  ac- 
counted a  blot  on  the  fair  fame  of  Stilicho,  and  was 
not  forgotten  when  the  day  of  reckoning  came 
between  him  and  his  enemies  at  the  Imperial 
Court. 

Another  defeat,  a  doubtful  defeat,  of  the  Goths  at  Alaric  re- 
Verona  seems  to  have  ended  the  war.    In  the  year  u™sfrom 

J        Italy,  403. 

403  Alaric  made  his  way  back  out  of  Italy,  probably 
over  the  Brenner  Pass.  He  had  not  this  time 
'penetrated  to  the  City'  :  he  had  lost  some  of  his 
treasure,  the  spoils  of  preceding  years,  and,  accord- 
ing to  one  account,  his  wife  even  had  fallen  into  the 
enemy's  hands.    In  itself  the  expedition  had  proved 

l  2 


148 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[v. 


fruitless  and  inglorious  enough,  but  it  was  the  parent 
of  mighty  results;  for  doubtless  in  consequence  of 
the  withdrawal  of  the   Imperial  forces  from  the 
Rhine,  a  multitude  of  barbarous  hordes — Vandals, 
406.         Alans,  and  Suevi — poured  from  Germany  into  Gaul, 
and  that  fair  province,  the  keystone  of  the  arch 
of  the  Western  Prefecture,  was  henceforward  virtu- 
ally lost  to  the  Empire. 
Invasion  of    Two  years  after  Alaric's  departure   from  Italy, 
sus  405  confederate  Radagaisus  returned  to  it,  having 

200,000  Goths  (probably  Ostrogoths)  in  his  train. 
This  man  was  spoken  of  with  terror  as  '  by  far  the 
most  savage  of  all  the  ancient  or  modern  enemies 
of  Rome.'  He  was  a  Pagan,  and  a  rumour  was 
spread  abroad  that  he  had  vowed  to  offer  to  his 
country's  savage  gods  the  blood  of  the  whole 
Roman  people  as  an  acceptable  drink-offering. 
The  impending  heathenism  without  gave  a  despair- 
ing courage  to  the  yet  unsubdued  heathenism  within. 
The  little  knot  of  senators  and  their  clients  who 
still  adhered  to  the  ancient  faith  (which  died  out 
more  slowly  in  Rome  than  anywhere  else)  dared 
to  lift  up  their  voices  and  openly  assert  that  all 
these  troubles  were  coming  upon  the  State  because 
she  had  left  her  old  moorings,  and  because  Jupiter 
Capitolinus  and  his  family  of  gods  were  no  longer 
receiving  their  ancient  honours.  However,  there 
was  not  time  for  this  party  to  effect  a  religious 
counter-revolution  before  deliverance  came.  If  Ra- 
dagaisus actually  appeared  under  the  walls  of  the 
City  (which   is  doubtful),  he  soon  departed  and 


v.] 


A  lark. 


149 


marched  northwards  into  the  rich  land  of  Etruria.  405. 
Stilicho  followed  him  with  an  army,  in  which  Uldin 
the  Hun  and  Sarus  the  Goth  were  conspicuous 
figures.  Once  again  he  played  that  clever  strategic 
game  which  he  had  probably  learnt  from  Theodo- 
sius,  and  which  he  had  already  twice  successfully 
practised  against  Alaric  in  Greece  and  in  Italy. 
He  'shut  him  up/  we  are  told,  in  that  circle  of Radagai- 
mountains  which  surrounds  Fiesole  and  looks  down  sus  shut 

tip  near 

on  Florence.    Skilfully-posted  detachments  of  troops  Fiesole. 
prevented  the  savage  invaders  from  piercing  at  any 
point  through  the  iron  girdle  that  encompassed  them  ; 
and  this  result  being  satisfactorily  attained,  of  course 
the  hugeness  of  the  host  only  hastened  the  inevitable 
surrender.     While  the  wild  horde  of  Ostrogoths 
were  starving  in  famished  Fiesole,  the  soldiers  of 
Stilicho  were  living  in  comfort — feasting,  gaming, 
singing   their  rough  camp-songs — but  a  sufficient 
number  of  them  ever  watching  that  none  of  the 
barbarians  should  creep  over  the  mountains  and 
escape.     Before  long  the  end  came.  Radagaisus, 
trying  to  steal  forth  by  himself  from  the  trap  into 
which  he  and  his  followers  had  fallen,  stumbled 
upon  one  of  Stilicho's  outposts,  was  brought  before 
his  conqueror,  and,  after  a  few  days'  interval,  was 
put  to  death.    The  multitude  which  had  accompanied  Radagai- 
him  into  Italy,  with  proud  dreams  of  conquest  and  ^J^™ 
plunder,  surrendering  themselves  at  last  to  their  army  sold 
watchful   enemies,  were   all   sold  as  slaves.     So  tnt0  sla~ 

very. 

glutted  was  the  market  by  their  numbers  that 
thousands  of  them  fetched  no  more  than  an  aureus 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[v. 


4<>5- 


Nature 
of  the 
manoeuvre 
by  which 
Radagai- 
sus  was 
defeated. 


(twelve  shillings)  apiece.  But  so  long  had  the  brave 
Teutons  delayed  their  surrender,  that  even  the 
food  which  their  new  masters  gave  them  came,  in 
the  majority  of  cases,  too  late  to  save  their  lives ; 
and  the  greedy  purchaser  found  in  thousands  of 
instances  that  his  aureus  procured  for  him  only  the 
obligation  to  bury  a  starved-out  Ostrogoth. 

The  fact  that  both  Theodosius  and  the  captain 
who  had  been  formed  in  his  school  practised  so 
often  and  so  triumphantly  this  manoeuvre  of '  shutting 
up  '  the  Goths  suggests  a  question  as  to  the  reason 
of  its  success.  We  must  remember  that  the  armies 
which  followed  Fritigern,  Alaric,  and  Radagaisus 
were,  for  the  most  part,  nation-armies,  encumbered 
with  women  and  children,  old  men  and  other  non- 
combatants,  for  whose  conveyance  a  long  train  of 
waggons  was  needed.  The  Goths  had  no  doubt 
some  horses,  since  we  hear  of  their  cavalry,  but  they 
do  not  seem  to  have  been  essentially  an  equestrian 
nation ;  and  their  cavalry  evidently  lacked  rapidity 
and  nimbleness  of  movement,  which  was  the  cause 
of  their  defeat  by  the  Huns. 

So  long  as  they  could  confine  themselves  to  the 
great  plains  of  the  Danube  and  the  Po,  the  over- 
powering numbers  of  this  human  torrent  made  them 
terrible  and  victorious ;  and  even  the  waggons  were 
useful,  since  when  formed  in  square  they  made  a 
rough  but  safe  encampment.  But  when  the  time 
came  for  this  nation-army  to  penetrate  from  one 
river-system  to  another,  to  cross  the  soaring  range  of 
the  Balkans  or  the  Apennines,  then  their  difficulties 


v.] 


A  lark. 


began.  Their  deficiency  of  light  cavalry  prevented 
them  from  reconnoitring  well  their  ground,  and  ob- 
taining (in  those  mapless  days)  the  much-needed 
information  as  to  the  easiest  passes  and  the  most 
fruitful  valleys.  Soon  there  would  be  stragglers 
from  the  main  host,  and  then  petty  and  harassing 
skirmishes  to  defend  those  stragglers.  The  great 
cumbrous  waggons  would  stick  in  morasses.  There 
would  be  night-alarms,  and  in  the  stampede  of 
cattle  and  flying  men,  many  would  be  dashed  down 
precipitous  ravines  or  swallowed  up  in  swollen  rivers. 
By  gentle  but  judicious  pressure  the  Imperial  general 
would  succeed  in  forcing  the  unwieldy  procession 
into  some  bay  among  the  mountains  carefully  selected 
beforehand,  whence  exit  for  heavily  armed  warriors, 
for  horses  and  for  waggons  was  only  possible  by  two 
or  three  well-defined  passes.  Then,  if  he  could  only 
keep  strict  watch  enough,  his  task  was  accomplished. 
He  would  station  his  bravest  soldiers,  Huns  very 
likely,  or  even  Gothic  foedcrati  on  whose  fidelity  he 
could  depend,  at  the  mouths  of  these  passes,  and 
wait  for  hunger  to  do  its  swift  work  upon  the  cattle, 
upon  the  little  children,  upon  the  women  ;  till  at 
length  thousands  of  brave  men  who  longed  for 
nothing  so  much  as  the  opportunity  to  die  fighting, 
found  even  this  denied  them,  and  had  to  surrender 
themselves  and  be  sold  as  slaves  to  cultivate  the  lands 
of  some  Roman  lord  whose  dainty  life  one  blow  from 
a  Gothic  fist  would  have  at  once  annihilated. 

This  picture  is  chiefly  an  imaginary  one  \  but  those 

1  Partly  founded,  however,  on  the  experience  of  Theodoric  in 
t 


152  Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[v. 


408. 


fievolt  of 
Constan- 
tine  in 
Britain, 
407. 


who  remember  the  terrible  scenes  which  marked  the 
destruction  of  the  British  army  in  the  Khyber  Pass 
will;  I  think,  recognise  its  probable  truth. 

We  pass  over  three  years  and  come  to  408.  Hono- 
rius,  who  was  aged  twenty-three,  had  now  been  for 
thirteen  years  the  nominal  ruler  of  the  West.  During 
the  whole  of  that  time  the  administration  of  affairs 
and  the  supreme  command  of  armies  had  been  in  the 
hands  of  Stilicho,  who,  notwithstanding  some  blunders 
and  some  crimes,  had  upon  the  whole  proved  himself 
equal  to  the  Herculean  task  which  the  weight  of  the 
falling  Empire  had  brought  upon  him,  and  had 
certainly  by  his  military  genius  marked  himself  out 
as  the  only  champion  fit  to  contend  successfully  with 
Alaric.  This  champion,  through  a  sinister  combina- 
tion of  fatuity,  intolerance,  and  spite,  was  now  struck 
down  by  the  Emperor  himself. 

The  circumstances  of  the  Empire  were  more  than 
ever  difficult  and  perplexing.  The  usual  British 
pretender  to  the  purple  had  appeared  in  the  shape  of 
a  private  soldier  named  Constantine,  whom  (chiefly 
on  account  of  his  distinguished  name)  the  legions 
still  remaining  in  Britain  had  hailed  as  Imperator, 
and  under  whose  command  they  had  crossed  over 
into  Gaul  to  contend  for  such  fragments  of  that 
wealthy  province  as  still  remained  Roman,  amid 
the  generally  pervading  swarm  of  Franks,  Vandals, 
Alans,  and  Alamanni.  In  the  East  the  relations 
with  Arcadius  had  been  growing  steadily  worse  for 
years.     The  present  subject  of  contention  was  a 

Thrace  as  described  by  Malchus.  (See  Italy  and  her  Invaders, 
Book  IV.  cap.  3.) 


v.]  Alaric.  153 

claim — a  preposterous  claim  as  it  seems  to  me—  408. 
on  the  part  of  the  Western  Empire  for  the  possession 
of  the  whole  instead  of  a  mere  half  of  the  Prefecture 
of  Illyricum.    In  support  of  this  claim  Alaric,  who 
seems  to  have  been  in  frequent,  almost  confidential, 
communication  with  Stilicho  ever  since   his   last  Negotia- 
invasion  of  Italy,  had  been  engaged  by  that  minister 
to  commence  a  joint  invasion  of  the  Eastern  Empire,  stilicho 
The  project  was,  however,  abandoned  owing  to  the  andAlaru' 
persuasions  of  Serena,  the  wife  of  Stilicho,  who 
appears  in  all  good  faith  to  have  exerted  her  influence 
with  her  husband  and  her  Imperial  cousins  in  order 
to  prevent  the  outbreak  of  war  between  Arcadius 
and  Honorius.    But  Alaric,  dissatisfied  with  such  a 
termination  of  the  affair  which  left  him  and  his 
followers  without  their  stipulated  guerdon,  suddenly 
appeared   at  Aemona  (Laybach)  in  a  threatening 
attitude,  and  demanded  compensation  for  the  trouble 
and  expense  to  which  he  had  been  put  in  preparing 
for  the  abandoned  expedition. 

This  extraordinary  claim  was  brought  by  Stilicho  Alaric 's 
before  the  Senate  at  Rome,  and  was  supported  by  claim  1°' 

7  rr  J  compensa- 

ble own  voice  and  by  an  easily  procured  letter  from  Hon. 

Honorius.     Against  such  powerful  advocates  who 

could  plead  ?    The  Conscript  Fathers  decided  that 

4000   pounds   weight  of  gold  (£160,000  sterling) 

should  be  paid  over  to  Alaric  in  consideration  of  his 

not  making  war  on  either  portion  of  the  Empire. 

One  Senator  alone,  a  man  of  high  rank  named 

Lampadius,  uttered  an  indignant  exclamation1,  'This 

1  '  Non  est  ista  pax,  sed  pactio  scrvitutis.' 


154 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[V. 


408.         is  no  peace,  but  a  selling  of  ourselves  into  slavery ' ; 

but  fearing  punishment  for  his  boldness,  when  the 
Senate  was  broken  up  he  took  refuge  in  a  neigh- 
bouring church,  the  sanctity  of  whose  asylum  seems 
to  have  preserved  him  from  punishment  \ 
Danger  of  It  might  seem  that  a  minister  who  could  thus  im- 
stihcho  s    p0se  njs  wj]j  on  Emperor  and  Senate  could  do  any- 

pOSltton.       r  r  j 

thing,  but  in  fact  the  position  of  Stilicho  was  already 
undermined.  His  daughter  Maria,  wife  of  the 
Emperor,  had  died,  and  the  docile  Honorius  had 
acquiesced  in  the  command  to  marry  her  sister 
Thermantia ;  but  it  seems  possible  to  discern  in  his 
feeble  soul  some  faint  struggles  of  revolt  against  the 
yoke  which  the  Stilichonian  family,  especially  his 
mother-in-law,  Serena,  imposed  upon  him.  In  the 
legions,  the  regular  Roman  part  of  the  army,  there 
was  an  increasing  feeling  of  bitterness  against  the 
favours  shown,  doubtless  deservedly,  to  the  Teutonic 
foederati.  1  Count  Stilicho,'  they  said  one  to  another, 
'  is  after  all  a  Vandal  by  birth,  Sarus  is  a  Goth, 
Uldin  is  a  Hun.  All  the  high  commands  are  being 
monopolised  by  men  whose  fathers  were  skin-clothed 
barbarians.  We  are  Romans,  the  sons  of  the  com- 
rades of  Romulus,  scions  of  the  race  that  has  con- 
quered the  world,  yet  we  are  nothing  in  our  own  land.' 
Side  by  side  with  this  military  discontent,  there  was 
also  ecclesiastical  dissatisfaction.  Stilicho,  if  not 
actually  an  Arian,  pretty  certainly  threw  his  influence 
into  the  scale  against  the  persecuting  edicts  and  civil 
disabilities  which  the  orthodox  party  were  endeavour- 
1  He  was  Praefectus  Praetorio  under  Attalus,  409. 


Alaric. 


155 


ing  to  persuade  the  Emperor  to  hurl  at  the  heretics.  4°8- 
A  rumour  was  also  spread  abroad  —the  truth  or  the 
origin  of  which  it  is  impossible  now  to  ascertain — 
that  his  son  Eucherius  shared  that  devotion  to  the 
old  idolatry  which,  as  has  been  said,  lingered  on  so 
long  among  the  nobility  of  Rome.  Whatever  the 
truth  of  that  rumour  may  have  been,  another  report 
which  was  industriously  brought  under  the  notice  of 
Honorius,  that  Stilicho  was  scheming  to  secure  the 
diadem  for  his  son,  was  almost  certainly  unfounded. 
In  point  of  fact  the  great  minister  had  shown  singular 
moderation  in  reference  to  the  advancement  of  this 
son,  who  at  this  time  held  only  the  unimportant 
office  of  Tribunus  Notariorum. 

Such  was  already  the  thunderous  state  of  the  at-  Death  of 
mosphere  of  the  Court  when  news  reached  Ravenna  Arnc?dms,0 

r  _  1  May,  408. 

of  the  death  of  the  Eastern  Emperor,  Arcadius.  Both 
Honorius  and  Stilicho  seem  to  have  desired  the 
office  of  guardian  to  the  young  Theodosius,  son  of 
Arcadius,  and  to  have  proposed  to  go  to  Constan- 
tinople to  claim  it.  Stilicho  had  not  much  difficulty 
in  dissuading  the  timid  and  parsimonious  Honorius 
from  the  dangers  and  expense  of  the  journey,  but  he 
could  not  allay  the  suspicions  which  his  own  eager- 
ness for  the  office  had  excited,  that  he  was  again 
striving  in  an  underhand  way  to  procure  either  the 
Eastern  or  the  Western  diadem  for  the  young  Pagan, 
Eucherius.  There  was  a  certain  officer  of  the  Im- 
perial guard  named  Olympius,  'a  man  who,  under 
the  guise  of  devotion  to  Christianity,  concealed  every 
kind  of  wickedness/  who  was  perpetually  whispering 


i56 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[v. 


408.  into  the  Emperor's  ear  the  danger  to  religion  from 
Honorius  this  ambition  of  Stilicho.  A  camp  had  been  formed 
^tTici™1 * a*  Ticinum.  (Pavia),  for  the  soldiers  who  were  to 
num.        march  into  Gaul  to  quell  the  revolt  of  Constantine. 

To  this  camp,  which  seems  to  have  contained  a  large 
preponderance  of  Roman-born  soldiers,  Honorius 
set  forth  accompanied  by  Olympius  ;  and  Stilicho, 
who  had  thus  allowed  his  most  useful  instrument  to 
be  purloined  from  him,  lingered  in  a  curious  state 
of  irresolution  and  inactivity  with  his  foederati  round 
Mutiny  at  njm  at  Bologna.  Soon  the  news  came  of  a  terrible 
mutiny  of  the  troops  at  Ticinum.  Olympius.  had  been 
ingratiating  himself  with  the  soldiers  in  every  pos- 
sible way,  visiting  those  who  were  sick,  and  on  every 
occasion  letting  fall  words  of  sympathy  for  their 
hardships,  and  indignation  at  the  partiality  which 
constantly  postponed  their  interests  to  those  of  the 
barbarian  favourites  of  Stilicho.  These  hints,  coming 
from  an  officer  of  the  Imperial  guard  and  a  manifest 
favourite  of  the  Emperor,  had  produced  their  na- 
tural effect.  There  had  been  what  in  Spanish  politics 
is  called  a  pronunciamento.  The  soldiers  had  risen 
in  rebellion,  slain  four  officers  of  the  highest  rank  in 
the  army  and  four  heads  of  departments  in  the  State, 
put  the  magistrates  to  flight,  and  held  a  carnival  of 
blood  in  the  city,  robbing  and  murdering  at  their  will. 

At  first  the  news  ran  that  Honorius  himself  had 
been  killed  in  the  tumult,  and  then  the  foederati  at  Bo- 
logna urged,  and  Stilicho  consented,  that  they  should 
at  once  march  to  Ticinum  and  avenge  his  death.  Soon, 
however,  a  correcter  version  of  the  affair  was  re- 


v.] 


Alaric. 


157 


ceived.  Honorius  was  not  dead,  but  had  been  paraded  4°8- 
up  and  down  the  streets  of  the  city  by  Olympius,  in 
a  short  military  cloak  and  without  a  diadem,  endea- 
vouring to  persuade  the  soldiers  to  return  to  their 
obedience.  In  this  he  had  at  length  succeeded.  The 
mutiny  had  been  quelled,  but  the  authors  of  it  had 
gained  their  end.  All  the  more  powerful  friends 
of  Stilicho  at  Ticinum  had  been  treacherously  slain, 
and  it  was  now  deemed  safe  to  issue  an  order  for  the 
apprehension  of  Stilicho  himself.  The  officers  of 
the  foederati,  when  the  designs  of  the  Court  were 
apparent,  naturally  wished  to  defend  themselves  and 
their  great  general  by  force,  but  he  refused  to  take 
any  part  in  such  a  civil  war,  1  not  deeming  it  honour- 
able or  safe  to  employ  barbarians  against  the  Roman 
army1.'  Sarus,  the  Goth,  having  no  sympathy  with 
such  scruples,  perceiving  that  it  would,  in  these  cir- 
cumstances, ruin  his  prospects  of  a  military  career 
to  be  known  as  an  adherent  of  Stilicho,  ungenerously 
turned  against  his  old  chief,  slew  the  brave  Huns 
who  formed  his  body-guard,  and  would  fain  have 
captured  Stilicho  himself,  who,  however,  fled  to 
Ravenna,  but  even  in  the  hurry  of  his  own  flight 
found  time  to  warn  the  neighbouring  cities  not  to 
receive  the  foederati  within  their  walls.  Soon  after 
his  arrival  came  a  messenger  from  Olympius  bearing 
the  Emperor's  orders  that  he  was  to  be  apprehended 
and  imprisoned.  Stilicho  took  refuge  in  one  of  the 
many  churches  of  Ravenna,  but  on  the  soldiers 
swearing  a  solemn  oath  in  the  presence  of  the  Bishop 
1  Zosimus  v.  33. 


158 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[v. 


408.  that  they  were  ordered  to  imprison  him  only  but  not 
Stilkho  to  kill  him;  he  surrendered  himself  to  them.  At 
arrested,     once  the  same  messenger  produced  a  second  letter 

and  put  to  . 

death.  from  the  Emperor,  denouncing  against  Stilicho  the 
punishment  of  death  for  his  crimes  against  the  Com- 
monwealth. His  friends  and  servants  and  a  mass  of 
indignant  foederati  entreated  to  be  allowed  to  defend 
him  by  arms,  but  Stilicho  sternly  forbade  them,  and 
calmly  presented  his  neck  to  the  sword  of  the  execu- 
tioner (Aug.  22,  408). 

Some  men  who  have  led  apparently  righteous  and 
honourable  lives  are  unmasked  by  Death,  who  ex- 
poses their  well-hidden  wickedness.  In  Stilicho's 
case  Death  wrought  exactly  the  opposite  change. 
At  every  step  of  his  career  we  ask  ourselves  the  ques- 
tion, '  Self-seeker  or  Patriot  ? '  and  it  must  be  con- 
fessed that  we  scarcely  get  a  perfectly  satisfactory 
answer.  But  the  closing  scenes  of  his  life  show  that 
he  was  indeed  true  to  Rome,  and  refused  the  ven- 
geance and  the  deliverance  which  lay  all  ready  to 
his  hand  rather  than  use  against  her  the  swords  of 
the  barbarians. 

Persecu-  The  death  of  Stilicho  was  the  signal  for  an  out- 
frieftdsof  ^urst  °^  jeal°us  rage  against  his  family  and  friends. 
Stilicho.  Eucherius,  who  had  fled  to  Rome,  was  before  long 
put  to  death.  Thermantia  was  sent  back  by  Hono- 
rius  to  her  mother.  The  adherents  of  Stilicho  were 
tortured  to  make  them  confess  his  traitorous  designs, 
and  when  they  steadfastly  denied  the  existence  of 
any  such,  were  beaten  to  death  with  cudgels.  Above 
all,  the  Roman  soldiers,  in  every  city  where  the 


v.l 


Alaric. 


*59 


wives  and  children  of  the  foederati  were  dwelling,  408. 
rose  in  riotous  insurrection,  killing  some  and  plun- 
dering others.  Henceforth,  of  course,  there  was 
open  war  between  legionaries  and  foederati,  the 
latter  of  whom,  to  the  number  of  30,000,  streamed 
forth  to  Alaric's  Illyrian  camp  and  urged  him  to 
avenge  them  on  their  cruel  and  cowardly  foes. 

Mindful  of  his  former  reverses  in  Italy,  Alaric, 
though  the  voice  1  Penetrabis  ad  Urbem '  was  still 
ringing  in  his  ears,  offered  peace  to  Honorius  in 
exchange  for  a  small  sum  of  money,  hostages,  and 
the  province  of  Pannonia,  on  which  by  this  time  the 
Empire  can  have  had  but  a  slender  hold.  Hono- 
rius, safe  behind  the  canals  of  Ravenna,  and  relying 
on  the  prayers  of  Olympius,  refused  all  terms  of 
compromise,  and  late  in  this  eventful  year,  408,  Alaric  in- 
Alaric  marched  for  the  last  time  over  the  Julian  v^sItaly> 
Alps  into  Italy,  never  again  to  leave  that  land,  the 
goal  of  so  many  aspirations.  The  events  of  the 
three  years,  408-410,  in  each  of  which  there  was  a 
siege  of  Rome,  cannot  here  be  related  with  any 
detail,  and  some  of  them  are  among  the  best-known 
commonplaces  of  history.  I  will  only  briefly  assign 
to  each  year  its  distinguishing  features. 

The  first,  408,  was  the  year  of  ransom.  Alaric,  as  Rome  ran- 
has  been  said,  in  the  later  months  of  the  year somedi  4°8, 
marched  into  Italy,  and  did  not,  as  before,  linger  in 
the  plains  of  Lombardy,  but  struck  southward  through 
Picenum  and  Umbria,  marching  no  doubt  by  the  great 
Flaminian  Way,  and  stood  before  long  at  the  gates 
of  Rome.    There  seems  to  have  been  no  opposition 


160  Dynasty  of  Theodosius.  [v. 

to  his  progress.  The  '  Roman '  party,  so  zealous  in 
killing  women  and  children  and  in  organising  pro- 
nunciamentos,  slunk  into  their  holes  when  an  army 
appeared.  It  is  probable  that  in  this  Italian  expe- 
dition Alaric  had  made  his  host  more  of  an  army 
and  less  of  a  nation  than  on  the  previous  occasion. 
We  hear  nothing  of  the  waggons,  and  some  of  his 
marches  and  counter-marches  can  hardly  have  been 
performed  with  a  long  train  of  non-combatants  fol- 
lowing him. 

At  Alaric's  appearance  under  their  walls  the  Senate 
(for  Honorius  was  safe  at  Ravenna)  could  think  of 
no  other  means  of  opposing  him  than  putting  the 
hapless  Serena,  the  widow  of  Stilicho,  to  death, 
fearing  that  she  might  open  treacherous  communi- 
cations with  the  besiegers.  The  cowardly  deed  was 
not  long  unpunished.  Alaric  watched  the  Tiber 
above  and  below,  and  drew  a  strict  line  of  blockade 
round  the  city.  Hunger  and  pestilence  were  soon 
raging  among  the  people,  and  the  Senate  found 
itself  compelled  to  send  ambassadors  to  Alaric  to 
ask  his  terms.  The  threat  that  despair  might  drive 
the  citizens  to  some  audacious  sortie  was  met  by  the 
well-known  answer,  1  The  thicker  the  hay,  the  easier 
mown ' :  the  enquiry  what  Alaric  meant  to  leave 
them  if  he  insisted  on  their  surrendering  all  their 
gold,  all  their  moveable  property,  and  all  their  bar- 
barian slaves,  by  the  equally  well-known  words, 
1  Your  lives  V 

More  days  of  famine  followed.    At  length  a  final 

1  Or  '  your  souls.' 


v.]  Alaric.  161 

embassy  arranged  the  terms  of  the  ransom  which  408. 
Alaric  condescended  to  receive  from  the  Imperial 
City.  It  consisted  of  5000  lbs.  weight  of  gold 
(£225,000),  30,000  lbs.  of  silver  (£90,000),  4000 
silken  tunics,  3000  scarlet  hides,  and  3000  lbs.  of 
pepper.  The  date  of  this  transaction  is  not  known, 
but  it  was  probably  in  the  very  last  days  of  408. 

The  next  year,  409,  is  the  year  of  the  anti-Emperor,  409. 
Attains.    All  Alaric's  dealings  with  the  Senate  2iX\dAl^r\cne' 

0  gotiates 

People  of  Rome  at  this  time  were  directed  to  the  Modera- 
conclusion  of  a  firm  treaty  of  alliance,  offensive  and  iion  °f his 
defensive,  with  the  Emperor.  His  aim  was  not  to  re(luests' 
conquer  Rome,  or  to  settle  his  followers  in  any  part 
of  Italy,  but  to  legitimise  his  position  within  the 
Empire,  to  have  a  large  space  on  the  Middle 
Danube,  either  Noricum  or  Pannonia,  assigned  to 
his  people,  and  then  to  be  recognised  as  Rome's 
champion  against  all  other  enemies.  In  fact,  he 
desired  to  renew  the  old  federate  relation  only  on  a 
footing  of  equality  instead  of  one  of  semi-depend- 
ence. To  all  such  propositions  Honorius,  or  rather 
the  ministers  who  spoke  in  his  name,  replied  with 
an  unceasing  1  non  possumus'  as  they  could  not  be 
attacked,  being  safe  behind  the  dykes  and  lagoons 
of  Ravenna.  Alaric's  only  resource  was  to  put 
pressure,  even  cruel  pressure,  on  Rome,  in  order 
to  bring  her  sovereign  to  terms. 

A  considerable  part  of  the  year  409  was  consumed  Oath  sworn 
in  these  vain  negotiations.    The  Praetorian  Prefect,  byT  head 

.  of  I/ono- 

Jovius,  who  had  supplanted  Olympius  in  the  posi-  rius. 
tion  of  chief  adviser  of  the  Emperor,  seems  to  have 

M 


l62 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[v. 


4°9-  been  at  first  disposed  to  try  to  make  terms  with 
Alaric,  and  to  see  if  the  title  '  M agister  Utriusque 
Militiae1  could  not  divert  him  from  his  schemes  of 
conquest.  But  Honorius  demurred  to  the  proposal, 
and  Jovius,  accommodating  himself  to  his  master's 
humour,  insisted  on  all  the  chief  officers  of  the  Em- 
peror assembling  round  him  and  swearing  by  their 
master's  head  (which  they  touched  in  making  the 
asseveration)  that  they  would  make  no  peace  with 
Alaric,  but  would  wage  against  him  perpetual  war. 
To  all  subsequent  overtures  of  Alaric  (and  some  of 
them  surprise  us  by  their  moderation,  offering  terms 
such  as  the  Empire  might  have  safely  and  honour- 
ably granted),  this  tremendous  oath  by  the  empty 
head  of  Honorius  was  opposed  as  an  insuperable 
obstacle. 

Attains  Alaric,  whose  patience  was  worn  out,  returned  to 
proclaimed  R        and       in  formed  the  blockade  of  the  City. 

Emperor.  J 

But  the  Senate,  whose  patience  was  equally  ex- 
hausted, refused  to  again  undergo  the  horrors  of 
famine  and  pestilence  for  the  ungrateful  Honorius, 
and  sent  messengers  to  Alaric  declaring  that  they 
were  willing  to  renounce  their  allegiance  to  the 
Emperor.  Peace  on  these  terms  was  easily  arranged. 
Attalus,  the  Praetorian  Prefect  of  the  City,  a  man 
of  Greek  extraction,  was  saluted  as  Emperor,  and  in 
that  capacity  concluded  a  treaty  with  Alaric,  recog- 
nising him  as  an  ally  of  the  Empire,  probably  con- 
ceding to  him  a  settlement  in  the  coveted  provinces 
on  the  Danube,  and  conferring  on  him  at  once  the 
splendid  position  of  Magister  Utriusque  Militiae. 


v.]  Alaric.  163 

So  opened  the  year  410,  the  ever-memorable  year  410. 
of  the  Third  Siege  and  Capture  of  Rome.    It  seemed  Attalns 

&  r         J  refuses  to 

for  a  time  as  if  Attalus  would  indeed  wrest  the  Rule  divideltaly 
of  All  Things  from  his  incapable  rival.   He  marched  Wlth  Ho~ 

.  .  norms. 

towards  Ravenna,  from  whence  issued  forth  a  piteous 
supplication  for  peace  on  the  basis  of  a  yet  further 
subdivided  Empire.  If  Honorius  might  but  continue 
to  reign  at  Ravenna,  Attalus  should  reign  at  Rome, 
and  the  Concordia  Augustorum  might  unite  them 
and  Constantine,  the  Emperor  of  the  Gauls,  with 
the  son  of  Arcadius,  Emperor  of  the  East.  Attalus 
made  a  cruel  and  insulting  reply,  threatening  his 
rival  with  mutilation  and  banishment :  but  the  timely 
arrival  at  Ravenna  of  six  legions  from  Constanti- 
nople prevented  him  from  carrying  his  threat  into 
execution,  and  turned  the  tide  of  fortune.  Famine  Supplies 
again  threatened  Rome,  from  another  cause 

Africa 

the  blockade  of  Alaric.  Heraclian,  to  whom  had  stopped. 
been  entrusted  the  execution  of  the  sentence  against 
Stilicho,  was  now  holding  the  great  province  of  Africa 
loyally  for  Honorius,  and  by  cutting  off  the  food 
supplies  of  Carthage  from  Rome,  brought  the  City 
into  such  terrible  straits  that  an  angry  cry  was  heard 
in  the  Amphitheatre,  when  the  new  Emperor  was 
sitting  there  in  state  watching  the  games,  4  Pone 
pretium  carni  humanae  *  ('  Fix  the  tariff  for  human 
flesh ').  Alaric's  keen  eye  saw  that  Africa  was  now 
the  key  of  the  position,  and  he  urged  upon  Attalus 
the  necessity  of  sending  troops,  barbarian  foederati, 
thither  to  overcome  Heraclian.  But  Attalus,  who 
was  evidently  a  futile,  inefficient  ruler,  delayed  and 

M  2 


164 


Dynasty  of  Theodosins. 


[v. 


410. 


Attains 
deposed. 


Sams 
breaks  off 
the  nego- 
tiations 
bet  wee  n 
Alaric 
and  Ho- 
norins. 


Alaric  en- 
ters Rome, 
24  Aug. 
410. 


lingered,  and,  as  it  was  hinted,  began  to  entertain 
schemes  for  disembarrassing  himself  of  the  oppres- 
sive patronage  of  the  Visigoth.  At  length  Alaric, 
tired  of  his  vacillation  and  bad  faith,  and  recognising 
the  failure  of  his  scheme  of  creating  a  rival  Emperor, 
assembled  his  army  on  the  plain  outside  Ariminum, 
and  there,  in  the  sight  of  thousands  of  Romans  and 
Goths,  formally  stripped  Attalus  of  the  emblems  of 
Empire,  and  proclaimed  that  he  was  reduced  to  the 
rank  of  a  private  citizen. 

The  diadem  and  the  purple  were  sent  to  Honorius 
at  Ravenna,  and  it  seemed  for  a  moment  as  if  the 
just  and  honourable  peace,  so  eagerly  desired  by 
Italy,  by  Rome,  and  by  Alaric,  might  be  secured. 
But  Sarus  the  Goth,  the  same  man  who  had  turned 
treacherously  against  Stilicho  in  his  adversity,  and 
who,  perhaps  on  that  account,  hated  Alaric  and  was 
hated  by  him,  entered  Ravenna  at  the  head  of  300 
veterans,  and  succeeded  in  breaking  off  the  just- 
resumed  thread  of  the  negotiations. 

Then  at  length,  as  it  seemed  that  nothing  but  the 
sword  could  cut  the  Gordian  knot,  Alaric  again 
crossed  the  Apennines,  determined  to  show  what 
he  could  do  to  Rome  as  an  enemy,  since  she  in  her 
infatuation  rejected  him  as  a  friend. 

There  was  this  time  no  long  agony  of  blockade,  no 
famine  or  pestilence.  On  the  night  of  the  24th  of  Au- 
gust, 410,  almost  as  soon  as  he  had  appeared  under  the 
walls  of  the  City,  Alaric  effected  an  entrance  through 
the  Salarian  Gate,  at  the  north-east  corner  of  the 
City,  at  very  nearly  the  same  place  where,  on  the 


v.]  Alaric.  165 

20th  Sept.  1870,  the  soldiers  of  Victor  Emmanuel  410. 
entered  Rome.  Whether  the  gate  was  carried  by  a 
sudden  surprise,  or  was  opened  by  slaves  or  trea- 
cherous citizens  within,  it  is  impossible  now  to 
decide ;  but  the  theory  of  surprise  seems,  upon  the 
whole,  most  probable.  The  splendid  palace  of  the 
historian  Sallust,  hard  by  the  Salarian  Gate,  was  set 
on  fire,  and  its  spacious  gardens  had  their  beauty 
ruined  by  the  entering  Gothic  soldiers. 

Thus,  then,  at  length  1  the  great  city  which  reigned  Rome 
over  the  kings  of  the  whole  earth  '  was  captured  and  sacked 
was  pillaged  by  a  foreign  and  a  barbarian  enemy. 
Civil  war,  sedition,  frenzied  Emperors  had  'dealt 
upon  the  Seven-hilled  City's  pride '  in  the  course  of 
the  centuries  ;  but  not  for  800  years — not  since  Bren- 
nus  and  his  Gauls  had  slain  the  Conscript  Fathers 
in  the  Forum — had  Rome  been  violently  entered  by 
a  conquering  foreign  foe.  There  were  some  allevia- 
tions to  the  horrors  of  the  capture,  derived  from  the 
fact  that  the  assailants  were  Christians ;  and  these 
alleviations  are  naturally  emphasised  by  the  Church 
historians,  from  whom  we  derive  most  of  our  scanty 
information  as  to  the  Third  Siege  of  Rome.  Alaric 
had  ordered  that  no  Christian  church  should  be 
injured,  and  that  the  right  of  asylum,  especially  in 
the  two  great  Basilicas  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul, 
should  be  religiously  observed.  These  orders  were 
perhaps  made  known  to  the  citizens,  multitudes  of 
whom,  Pagan  as  well  as  Christian,  were  soon 
flying  for  shelter  to  these  islands  of  safety.  But 
notwithstanding  any  such  humane  orders,  honour- 


i66 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[v. 


410.  able  both  to  the  general  who  issued  them  and  to  the 
army  by  whom  they  were  obeyed,  the  sack  of  a  great 
and  wealthy  city  by  a  hungry  and  exasperated  army 
of  barbarians  was  of  necessity  a  terrible  thing.  We 
hear  of  an  aged  widow  beaten  to  death  to  make 
her  disclose  her  imaginary  treasures,  of  matrons 
ravished,  of  palaces  laid  in  ashes.  And  above  all 
rose  now  the  terrible  fact  that  Roma  Invicta  had 
been  conquered.  Where  one  barbarian  chief  had 
penetrated,  more  could,  and  of  a  surety  would,  follow. 
The  citizens  henceforth — like  men  who  have  lived 
through  a  great  and  fearful  earthquake — must  live 
evermore  in  dread  of  seeing  the  ghastly  terror  re- 
commence. 

As  even  political  caricatures  may  sometimes  help 
us  to  understand  what  contemporary  spectators  think 
of  the  actors  on  the  stage  of  history,  let  us  listen  to 
Procopius,  who  wrote  150  years  later,  but  who  has 
preserved  to  us  a  possibly  contemporary  story,  as  to 
the  reception  of  the  news  of  the  fall  of  Rome  by  the 
Roman  Augustus. 
Reception       'They  say  that  at  Ravenna  one  of  the  eunuchs 

°tidings  by  wno  was  *n  cnarSe  °f  tne  Imperial  poultry  an- 
Honorins.  nounced  to  the  Emperor  Honorius  that  Roma  had 
actually  perished.  Whereupon  he  cried  with  a  loud 
voice — "  But  just  now  he  fed  out  of  my  hands !  " 
[for  he  had  an  exceedingly  large  fowl,  Roma,  by 
name.]  Then  the  eunuch,  understanding  what  was 
passing  in  his  mind,  said  that  it  was  Roma  the  City 
which  had  been  destroyed  by  Alaric.  But  the  Em- 
peror in  reply  said,  "  But  I  thought,  my  friend,  that 


v.] 


Alaric. 


167 


the  bird  Roma  had  perished  ! " — so  great  they  say  410. 
was  the  stupidity  of  this  Emperor/ 

The  capture  of  Rome  by  Alaric,  though  an  event  The  cap- 

of  incalculable  importance  in  the  history  of  the  world,    re  °f 

J  Rome 

settled  nothing  in  the  immediate  present.  Still  the  settled 
Augustus,  the  only  legitimate  source  of  power  in  the  nothins- 
Roman  State,  remained  inaccessible  at  Ravenna. 
Still  Heraclian,  his  yet  loyal  governor  of  Africa, 
held  that  province  for  his  master,  withholding  the 
grain-supplies  without  which  Rome  could  not  live. 
Still  Alaric  could  not  conquer  that  firm  peace, 
guaranteed  by  sufficient  hostages,  and  securing  to 
him  a  lawful  position  in  the  Empire,  without  which 
he  was  determined  not  to  return  to  Illyricum.  He 
marched  to  the  extreme  south  of  Italy,  and  designed 
to  cross  over  into  Sicily,  in  whose  ports  he  would  pro- 
bably have  collected  an  armament  for  the  conquest 
of  Africa.  But  he  never  effected  the  passage  of  the 
Straits  of  Messina,  the  ships  which  he  had  collected 
at  Rhegium  being  destroyed  by  a  violent  storm. 
While  he  was  still  lingering  in  Calabria  he  was  Death  of 
seized  by  an  illness,  which  lasted  but  a  few  days.  Al^ru> 
He  had  'penetrated  to  the  City';  his  work  was 
done.  The  fateful  voice  rang  in  his  ears  no  longer, 
telling  him  of  great  exploits  yet  reserved  for  him  in 
the  future,  but  instead  of  it  came  Death.  He  was 
probably  in  about  the  forty-fifth  year  of  his  age  ;  so 
that  he,  like  Theodosius,  left  great  possibilities  of 
conquest  unexhausted.  But  in  his  short  career  he 
had  done  enough  to  change  the  current  of  the 
world's  history. 


:68 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[v. 


410.  The  story  of  his  burial  is  well  known.    In  order 

Mari!  ^  to  Suar<^  his  grave  from  the  possibility  of  insult  at 
the  hands  of  the  Provincials,  a  number  of  captives 
were  employed  in  diverting  the  stream  of  the  Busentus, 
a  river  of  Bruttii.  In  the  old  river-bed  a  great  trench 
was  dug,  wherein  were  laid  the  bones  of  the  conquer- 
ing king,  and,  after  the  fashion  of  his  heathen  fore- 
fathers, some  of  the  most  precious  spoils  of  Rome 
were  laid  by  his  side,  that  he  might  not  miss  them 
in  the  gardens  of  Paradise  or  the  halls  of  Walhalla. 
Then  the  trench  was  filled  in,  the  river  was  turned 
back  into  its  ancient  bed,  the  captives  were  slain  : 
and  thus  '  no  man  knoweth  his  sepulchre  unto  this 
day.' 


LECTURE  VI. 


Placidia  :  Attila. 

An  interval  of  forty-two  years  elapsed  between  Historical 
Alaric's  sack  of  Rome  and  the  next  great  barbarian  PersPectlve 
invasion  of  Italy.  To  us,  looking  at  these  years  as 
they  appear  on  the  outstretched  map  of  History,  it  is 
manifest  that  they  were  years  of  gradual  but  pro- 
gressive decline  and  decay  for  the  Roman  Empire. 
Probably,  but  not  certainly,  they  wore  the  same 
aspect  to  contemporary  observers.  But  the  im- 
portant point  to  remember  is  that  there  was  such  an 
interval  between  the  first  and  the  second  acts  of  the 
great  World-Tragedy.  Reading  history  in  a  manual, 
or  glancing  over  it  in  such  a  rapid  sketch  as  I  am 
now  attempting  to  draw,  we  are  apt  to  forget  how 
slowly  some  of  its  scenes  have  unrolled  themselves. 
Superficial  students,  if  they  do  not  actually  confound 
Alaric  with  Attila,  often  think  of  them  as  contem- 
poraries, perhaps  as  allies,  and  suppose  that  they 
and  Genseric  and  Odoacer,  by  some  combined  and 
concerted  effort,  brought  about  'the  fall  of  the 
Western  Empire.'  What  I  want  to  impress  upon 
my  hearers  is  the  fact  that  if  a  child  was  born  on  the 
day  that  Alaric  was  laid  under  the  waters  of  the  4IQ- 
Busentus,  he  would  be  a  middle-aged  man  when  Attila  452- 


170 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[VI. 


stood  under  the  walls  of  Aquileia,  and  would  be  verg- 
ing on  threescore  and  ten  when  the  last  Roman 
Emperor  of  the  West  was  bidden  to  hand  over  the 
purple  and  the  diadem  to  a  barbarian  conqueror.  I 
ask  also  for  a  full  measure  of  pity  for  those  true 
Roman  hearts  whose  allotted  span  of  life  had  to  be 
all  passed  in  these  years  of  irresistible  decline. 
There  are  times  like  that  of  which  a  poet  has  sung — 

'  Bliss  was  it  in  those  days  to  be  alive, 
And  to  be  young  was  very  heaven  ; ' 

times  like  the  first  years  that  followed  the  battle  of 
Salamis,  like  the  first  thrill  and  rapture  of  the 
Crusades,  like  'the  spacious  days  of  great  Elizabeth/ 
when  the  life  of  a  nation  has  been  so  strong,  so  fresh, 
and  so  triumphant  that  one  feels  as  if  even  the 
saddest  individual  life  must  have  been  overflowed  by 
the  great  national  gladness  and  saved  from  utter 
sorrow.  On  the  other  hand,  could  even  the  most  un- 
clouded domestic  happiness  atone  to  a  patriotic 
Roman  who  lived  in  the  fifth  century  for  the  necessity 
of  watching  the  lingering  agony  of  his  country  ?  Like 
a  man  dwelling  upon  a  subsiding  continent,  he  saw 
one  familiar  landmark  after  another  submerged  be- 
neath the  waters  of  barbarism.  Or  like  those  remote 
descendants  of  ours,  if  such  shall  then  be  living  on  this 
planet,  who,  as  physical  philosophers  tell  us,  will  see 
this  earth  begin  to  part  with  her  atmosphere  and 
become  incapable  of  sustaining  organic  life,  he  must 
have  felt  that  all  the  old  conditions  of  being  were  in- 
verted, and  that  life  by  the  beautiful  Mediterranean 
was  going  to  become  in  truth  unliveable. 


VI.] 


Placidia:  Attila. 


171 


In  order  to  bring  the  length  of  this  interval  of  com- 
parative tranquillity  properly  before  our  minds,  let  us 
trace  the  fortunes  of  one  person  who  lived  through  it, 
a  daughter,  sister,  wife  and  mother  of  Emperors,  the 
lady  Galla  Placidia.    The  daughter  of  Theodosius's  Early  life 
second  marriage,  she  lost  her  mother,  Galla,  when  °{^c^™t 
a  child  of  five  or  six  years  old,  and  her  father  in  the  388. 
following  year.    She  appears  to  have  been  brought  Death  of 
up  at  Rome,  perhaps  by  her  kinswoman  Serena,  jjea^t  |^4' 
who  possibly  intended  that  she  should  be  the  bride  Theodo- 
of  her  son,  Eucherius.    Her  position  was  one  of  for- sms'  395' 
lorn  splendour,  that  of  an  orphan  with  no  sister  and 
with  two  such  brothers  as  Arcadius  and  Honorius ; 
nor  does  it  appear  to  have  been  cheered  by  any 
gleams  of  friendship  between  herself  and  the  house 
of  Stilicho.    When  Alaric  first  appeared  under  the 
walls  of  Rome,  the  resolution  to  put  Serena  to  death 
as  his  suspected   accomplice   was  taken   'by  the 
Senate   and   by  the   Emperor's  sister,  Placidia1.' 
Probably  the  name  of  a  young  maiden  of  twenty  was 
somewhat  ostentatiously  used  by  the  Senate  in  order 
to  justify  their  own  action  against  the  niece  of  the 
great  Theodosius :   still   it   is   impossible  for  the 
admirers  of  Placidia  (of  whom  I  am  one)  not  to 
regret   that  her   influence   on  this  occasion  was 
exerted  on  the  side  of  vengeance  rather  than  on  the 
side  of  compassion.    It  was  probably  at  the  end  of  Captivity 
the  first  siege  of  Rome  that  Placidia  was  taken  °f placuiia- 
prisoner  by  the  Goths,  who  retained  her  as  a  hostage, 
but  treated  her  with  all  outward  show  of  honour  and 

1  Zosimus  v.  38. 


172 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[vi. 


Alaric  s 
successor, 
A  taulfus. 


royal  ministrations.  She  was  therefore  doubtless 
present  at  the  great  assembly  at  Ariminum,  where 
her  brother's  rival,  Attalus,  was  deposed  ;  she  would 
hear  from  the  Gothic  soldiers  their  histories  of  the 
sack  of  Rome  ;  she  perhaps  saw  the  mighty  form  of 
her  conqueror  outstretched  in  death  in  his  tent  by 
the  Busentus.  Now,  for  the  next  five  years,  her 
history  was  to  be  singularly  interwoven  with  that  of 
his  brother-in-law  and  successor,  Ataulfus. 

This  man,  whose  name  is  in  fact  the  same  as  one 
of  those  borne  by  another  great  Northern  conqueror, 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  had  joined  Alaric  with  reinforce- 
ments raised  in  Upper  Pannonia  in  the  year  409, 
and  had  taken  part  in  the  skirmishes  with  Sarus 
before  Ravenna,  which  preceded  the  Third  Siege  of 
Rome.  He  was  a  blood-relation  1  of  Alaric,  as  well 
as  his  kinsman  by  marriage,  and  was  by  general 
acclamation  hailed  as  his  successor  and  raised  on 
the  shield  as  king.  Though  not  boasting  the  full 
number  of  inches  of  a  Gothic  warrior,  he  was  of 
shapely  form  and  noble  countenance.  He  is  especi- 
ally interesting  to  us,  because  a  chance  conversation 
with  a  Provincial,  a  conversation  which  passed 
at  Narbonne  and  was  reported  at  Bethlehem, 
gives  us  a  glimpse  into  his  own  secret  hopes  and 
aspirations,  such  as  we  do  not  possess  into  the  mind 
of  any  other  leader  of  the  barbarians.  Orosius  tells 
us  that  when  he  was  at  Bethlehem  he  heard  a  citizen 
of  Narbonne,  who  had  served  under  Theodosius, 
and  who  was  a  wise  and  religious  person,  say  that 

1  '  Consanguineo,'  Jord.  xxx. 


Placidia:  Attila. 


173 


Ataulfus  had  frequently  told  him  'that  his  first 
thought  when  he  entered  on  the  career  of  conquest 
had  been  to  claim  for  the  Goths  all  that  leadership 
of  the  world  which  had  once  belonged  to  the  Ro- 
mans, and  to  vindicate  for  himself  a  position  like 
that  which  had  belonged  to  the  mighty  Augustus. 
Gradually,  however,  the  fashion  of  his  dreams  had 
changed.  He  saw  that  it  was  not  by  the  sword 
alone,  but  by  law,  that  Rome  had  dominated  the 
world,  and  that  his  own  countrymen,  wild  and  im- 
petuous, had  not  learned  that  lesson  of  obedience  to 
Law  which  alone  could  fit  them  to  rule ;  and  now 
his  whole  desire  was  to  restore  and  re-invigorate 
the  great  Roman  Commonwealth,  transforming  that 
which  he  once  hoped  to  destroy.' 

Consciously  or  unconsciously  every  really  states- 
manlike intellect  among  the  Northern  chieftains  must 
have  gone  through  the  same  change  and  come  to  the 
same  conclusion.  Out  of  the  Goth,  or  the  Frank,  or 
the  Saxon  alone  it  was  not  possible  yet  to  form  a 
law-abiding  nation.  Either  from  the  Roman  State 
or  the  Roman  Church  they  must  learn  those  habits 
of  discipline  and  self-restraint  which  they  did  in  the 
end  learn,  and  practise  as  no  purely  Romance 
nation,  far  less  any  purely  Celtic  nation,  has  ever 
practised  them.  What  Ataulfus  saw  to  be  the 
statesman's  true  aim  was  that  which  Theodoric 
accomplished  with  temporary,  and  Charlemagne 
with  somewhat  more  permanent  success — that  trans- 
fusion of  fresh  Teutonic  blood  into  the  old  Roman 
body  which  has  in  fact  made  modern  Europe. 


174  Dynasty  of  Theodosius.  [vr. 

Loves  of       The  political  conversion  of  Ataulfus  was  aided, 
^InTphi-    as  conversi°ns  have  been   so   often  aided,  by  a 
cidia.        woman.    The  fair  Placidia,  forced  to  follow  all  the 
movements  of  the  Gothic  army,  yet  '  treated  with  all 
honour  and  ever  tended  with  royal  ministrations/ 
vanquished  his  heart.    The  old  saying  that  '  con- 
quered Greece  led  her  victor  captive )  was  renewed 
with  Placidia  and  Ataulfus ;   but  with  a  delicacy 
which  we  should  term  chivalrous  if  we  were  speaking 
of  a  later  age,  he  refused  to  make  her  his  bride, 
though  she  too  loved  him,  till  the  consent  of  her 
brother  came  from  Ravenna.    After  four  years  of 
weary  negotiations  this  consent  was  obtained,  but 
not  until  the  Goths  had  marched  out  of  Italy  into 
Their  mar-  Gaul.    In  January,  414,  the  marriage  of  the  Gothic 
9Narbonne  kmg  and  the  Roman  Lady  was  celebrated  at  Nar- 
4M-         bonne  at  the  house  of  a  citizen  named  Ingenuus. 

The  '  wise  and  religious  person '  who  afterwards 
conversed  with  Jerome  at  Bethlehem  was  doubtless 
present  at  the  wedding,  if  indeed  he  were  not  (as  is 
very  probable)  Ingenuus  himself.  Men  noticed  with 
interest  that  Ataulfus  entered  the  inner  apartment  to 
claim  his  bride,  dressed,  not  in  the  barbaric  splen- 
dour of  his  countrymen,  but  like  a  Roman  Senator. 
They  saw  with  admiration  the  fifty  goodly  youths 
in  silken  robes,  bearing  plates  filled  with  gold  and 
gems,  who  formed  part  of  Ataulfus'  splendid  Mor- 
gen-gabe1  to  his  bride.  Then  came  music,  and  they 
saw,  perhaps  not  without  a  touch  of  scorn,  Attalus, 
once  Emperor  of  Rome,  leading  the  dance  and  song 
in  honour  of  his  great  patron's  wedding. 

1  Morning-gift. 


VI] 


Placidia:  Attila. 


175 


Unhappily  for  the  world,  this  union  of  Roman  and  Fortunes 
barbarian  led  to  no  abiding  results.    The  kingdom  °^J^r  Vm 
set  up  by  Ataulfus  did  indeed  endure,  though  not  k  ingdom . 
exactly  in  the  shape  which  he  had  given  to  it.  Es- 
tablished at  first  chiefly  as  a  South  Gaulish  king- 
dom, and   remaining   such   till   the   conquests  of 
Clovis  at  the   end  of  the  fifth  century,  it  then 
shifted  its  centre  of  gravity  southward  of  the  Py- 
renees and  became  that  Visigothic  kingdom  of  Spain 
which  was  overthrown  by  the  Moors  in  711,  and 
which  gradually  crept  back  to  life  again  under  the 
kings  of  Leon,  Castille,  and   Arragon.    But  the 
dynasty  of  Ataulfus  himself  was   short-lived.  A 
child,  named  Theodosius,  was  born  to  him  by  Pla- 
cidia ;  but  this  child,  around  which  so  many  hopes  Death  of 
centered,  died,  to  the  unspeakable  grief  of  its  pa-  ^J^fm  s 
rents,  and  was  buried  in  a  silver  coffin  at  Barcelona,  and  of 
where  they  then  dwelt.     Soon  after  the  infant's  Atau!fus> 
death  the  father  was  stabbed  in  the  back  by  one 
of  his  servants,  who  thus  avenged  an  old  grudge 
for  the  execution  of  a  former  master.    His  dying 
words  to  his  brother  were,  '  Live  in  peace  with  Rome 
and  restore  Placidia  to  Honorius.' 

The  murder  of  Ataulfus  was  possibly  connected  Humilia- 
with  a  sort  of  insurrection  against  the  Roman  in-  UplaujJja 
fluences  which  had  been  of  late  so  powerful  in  the 
Gothic  Court.  His  successor,  the  brutal  Singeric, 
murdered  the  sons  of  Ataulfus  (the  children  of  his 
first  marriage)  and  forced  Placidia  to  walk  as  a 
captive  before  his  chariot  for  twelve  miles  from  the 
gates  of  Barcelona.    After  only  eight  days'  reign 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[VI. 


rtage  to 
Constan 
tins. 


416-423.    however,  this  ruffian  was  dethroned  and  slain,  and 
the  gallant  Walia  was  acclaimed  king,  whose  name 
is  one  of  the  most  distinguished  in  the  early  history 
of  the  Visigothic  monarchy.     He   renewed  and 
She  is  re-   strengthened  the  alliance  with    Rome,  and  gave 
stored  to     back  Placidia  to  the  Emperor,  receiving  in  return 

Honortus,  r        '  0 

416.  the  somewhat  prosaic  ransom  of  19,000  quarters  of 
corn. 

Her  mar-  Placidia  was  escorted  by  the  Roman  general  who 
had  received  her  from  the  hands  of  the  Goths  to 
her  brother's  Court  at  Ravenna,  and  there,  nearly 
two  years  after  the  death  of  Ataulfus,  she  gave  her 
hand  to  this  general,  an  old  lover  of  hers  named 
Constantius. 

Second         The  union  of  Constantius  and  Placidia  lasted  four 
and  exile  of vears>  an^  the  fruit  of  it  was  a  son  and  a  daughter, 
Placidia.    the  first  named  Valentinian  (after  his  maternal  great- 
grandfather), the  second,  Honoria.    Constantius,  a 
brave  soldier,  but  a  rough,  sullen,  unpopular  man, 
was  associated  in  the  Empire  by  his  brother-in-law, 
and,  after  six  months'  enjoyment  of  the  Imperial 
dignity,  died,  apparently  of  mere  ennui,  in  421.  Two 
years  after  his   death,   Placidia  and  her  children 
withdrew  to  Constantinople,  on  account  of  a  quarrel 
which  had  broken  out  with  her  brother,  who,  as 
I  suspect  from  the  description  of  his  conduct,  had 
begun  to  show  symptoms  of  softening  of  the  brain. 
Death  of       In  this  same  year  (423)  Honorius  died  at  the  age 
Honorms.  Qf  thirty-nine,  and  was  buried  in  a  gigantic  marble 
sarcophagus,  which  may  still  be  seen  in  'the  Mauso- 
leum of  Galla  Placidia '  at  Ravenna.    There  was  no 


VI.] 


Placidia:  Attila. 


177 


member  of  the  family  of  Theodosius  on  the  spot  to  423-425. 
claim  the  vacant  diadem,  and  Joannes,  a  somewhat  Elevation 
obscure  member  of  the  Civil  Service  (Primicerius  °fJoannes' 
Notariorum),  was  permitted  to  wear  it,  under  the 
patronage  of  the  powerful  Magister  Militum,  Cas- 
tinus. 

When  the  news  of  this  event  (usurpation  we  must  Theodosius 

not  call  it,  for  there  was  no  strict  hereditary  right  in  f{ Places 

'  J     &       ,  the  son  of 

the  Roman  Empire)  reached  the  Court  of  Constanti-  piacidia  on 

nople,  the  young  Emperor  Theodosius  II,  the  son  the  West' 

r  a        i-        1  -i  1  i-  •  1     em  throne. 

01  Arcadius,  determined  to  send  an  expedition  to  the 
West  to  overthrow  Joannes.  The  expedition  was 
commanded  by  two  brave  Alans — father  and  son — 
named  Ardaburius  and  Aspar ;  and,  after  one  or 
two  reverses,  was  in  the  end  completely  successful. 
Joannes  was  brought  as  a  prisoner  to  Aquileia ;  his 
right  hand  was  cut  off,  he  was  paraded  round  the 
city  upon  an  ass,  and,  after  some  more  ungenerous 
insults  of  this  kind,  he  was  put  to  death.  Ravenna, 
which  had  sympathised  with  the  elevation  of  Joannes, 
was  punished  by  being  sacked  by  the  soldiers  of 
Ardaburius.  Rome  was  flattered  by  the  young 
Valentinian  III,  a  boy  of  seven  years  old,  being  sent 
there  to  assume  the  purple.  At  Constantinople, 
Theodosius  II  and  his  people,  who  were  assembled 
in  the  Hippodrome  when  the  news  of  victory  ar- 
rived, walked  in  procession  to  the  great  Basilica, 
singing  praises  to  God  for  his  deliverance! 

From  425  to  450,  that  is,  from  the  thirty-eighth  to  Placidia  as 
the  sixty-third  year  of  her  life,  Placidia  was  virtually  ^-450 
the  sovereign  of  what  remained  of  the  Western 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[VI. 


425-450- 


Events  of 
Placidia's 
regency. 


Her  chief 

adviser, 

Aetius. 


Empire.  She  was  already  styled  Augusta  in  right 
of  her  husband  Constantius'  six  months'  wearing  of 
the  purple.  She  was,  in  accordance  with  one  or 
two  precedents,  entitled  to  hold  the  reins  of  power 
(with  the  rank,  though  not  the  precise  title,  of 
Regent)  during  her  son's  minority :  and  as  that  son 
was  idle  and  pleasure-loving,  reproducing  only  the 
weaker  features  of  the  Theodosian  character,  she 
continued  to  hold  them  after  he  had  grown  to  man- 
hood, and  until  her  own  death  in  450. 

Great  events,  disastrous  events,  were  happening 
during  this  second  quarter  of  the  fifth  century.  In 
the  Church  of  the  East  the  wind  was  rising  for  that 
great  storm  of  the  Monophysite  controversy  which 
for  a  hundred  years  took  peace  from  the  earth.  In 
the  West,  Carthage  was  being  conquered  by  the 
Vandals,  Gaul  and  Spain  were  being  more  and  more 
hopelessly  lost  to  the  Empire,  '  the  groans  of  the 
Britons  *  were  being  borne  across  the  sea  to  'Aetius, 
thrice  Consul.'  All  these  events  Placidia  had  to 
witness  with  failing  heart  from  her  palace  at  Ra- 
venna by  the  Pine  Wood  and  the  sea. 

If  the  Augusta  did  not  herself  display  any  con- 
spicuous faculty  of  rule  during  these  twenty-five 
years  of  decline,  she  at  least  had  the  merit  of  loyally 
supporting  the  one  man  who,  like  Stilicho  in  the 
previous  generation,  was  best  able  to  sustain  the 
falling  Empire.  This  was  that  '  Aetius  thrice  Con- 
sul' to  whom  allusion  has  just  been  made.  He  was 
born  at  Silistria,  on  the  Danube,  the  son  of  Gauden- 
tius,  an  official  of  high  rank  in  the  Western  Empire. 


Placidia:  Attila. 


179 


If  he  was  not  of  barbarian  extraction,  a  point  on  425-45°- 
which  we  cannot  speak  with  certainty,  the  events  of 
his  life  threw  him  into  close  intercourse  with  the 
barbarians.  For  three  years  a  hostage  in  the  camp 
of  the  Visigoths,  and  then,  for  an  indefinite  time, 
hostage  in  the  country  of  the  Huns,  he  had  con- 
tracted friendships  with  the  leading  men  of  both 
nations,  had  perhaps  learned  something  of  their 
language,  had  doubtless  observed  their  tactics  and 
formed  his  own  opinion  of  the  best  means  of  defeat- 
ing them1.  After  the  death  of  Honorius  he  had 
adhered  to  the  party  of  Joannes,  but,  not  having 
been  able  to  avert  his  overthrow,  he  had  accepted 
high  command  under  Placidia  and  Valentinian,  whom 
he  served  loyally  to  the  end  of  his  days 2.  Loyally, 
that  is,  as  far  as  his  sovereigns  were  concerned.  If 
the  hitherto  accepted  story  of  his  quarrel  with  Boni- 
facius,  governor  of  Africa,  be  correct,  there  was 
deep  disloyalty  on  the  part  of  Aetius  towards  his 
greatest  colleague  in  the  Imperial  service,  and  that 
disloyalty  cost  a  province  to  the  Empire;  but  the 
account  of  these  transactions  may  be  reserved  till 
the  next  lecture,  in  which  I  shall  have  to  speak  of 
the  conquests  of  the  Vandals.  During  ten  years, 
from  429  to  439,  the  energies  of  Aetius  were  chiefly 
directed  to  maintaining  some  hold  on  the  East  and 
Centre  of  Gaul,  with  which  object  he  waged  war  with 
diverse  success  on  the  Visigoths,  the  Franks,  and 

1  In  several  points  of  his  military  career,  Aetius  seems  to  me 
a  not  unworthy  precursor  of  Belisarius. 

2  With  a  short  interval  of  exile  in  Hunland,  433. 

N  2 


i8o 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[VI. 


441-450.    the  Burgundians,  and  it  is  noteworthy  that  in  these 
wars  the  most  useful  auxiliaries  of  Aetius  were  men 
of  the  Hunnish  nation.    During  the  last  nine  years 
Danger     0f  the  life  of  Placidia  (441-450)  the  chief  factor  in 
^Huns  *     European  politics,  the  care  that  bit  most  deeply 
into  the  hearts  both  of  the  Eastern  and  Western 
Sovereigns  of  the  Empire,  was  the  menacing  might 
of  Attila,  king  of  the  Huns.    To  these  savage 
Asiatic  marauders  it  is  now  time  to  turn  our  attention. 
History  of     For  more  than  fifty  years  after  the  Huns  crossed 
the  Huns   the  Sea  of  Azof  and  fell  like  a  thunderbolt  on  the 
after  374. 

kingdom  of  Hermanric  the  Ostrogoth,  their  history 
is  almost  a  blank.  They  had  set  in  motion  an  ava- 
lanche of  ruin  on  the  Empire,  but  they  themselves, 
though  doubtless  spreading  wide  the  terror  of  their 
name  through  Southern  Russia  and  Hungary,  and 
though  once  travelling  southward  as  far  as  Antioch 
on  a  marauding  expedition,  did  not  often  during  this 
period  come  forward  as  claimants  for  the  goods  of  the 
dying  Empire.  In  fact,  as  we  have  already  seen,  on 
several  occasions  the  Hunnish  soldier  seems  to  have 
been  the  bravest  and  most  faithful  of  the  auxiliaries 
of  Rome.  In  part  this  was  probably  due  to  common 
enmity  to  the  intervening  Visigoths.  The  Roman 
Provincial  hated  and  feared  the  Goth  :  the  Goth 
feared  and  loathed  the  Hun :  accordingly  the  Roman 
and  the  Hun  found  it  for  their  interest  to  be  friends. 
Attila 's        In  the  year  433,  Attila  and  his  brother  Bleda 

accession,  mounted  the  throne  of  the  Huns.  Twelve  years 
433.  J 

later  Bleda  died,  having  been,  according  to  some 

accounts,  craftily  slain  by  order  of  his  brother.  At 


vi.] 


Placidia :  Attila. 


i8x 


all  times  Attila's  was  the  commanding  personality,  433 
and  with  him  alone  need  we  here  concern  ourselves. 
Let  us  hear  how  he  is  described  by  the  historian  of 
the  Goths 1 :  '  Attila  was  a  man  born  into  the  world  His  cha- 
to  agitate  the  nations,  the  fear  of  all  lands,  one  who,  appear. 
I  hardly  know  how,  terrified  all  by  the  awful  appre-  once. 
hensions  spread  abroad  concerning  him.    He  was 
proud  in  his  gait,  rolling  his  eyes  hither  and  thither, 
so  that  the  elation  of  his  heart  showed  itself  even  by 
every  movement  of  his  body :  a  lover  of  war,  but  not 
himself  given  to  acts  of  violence2,  mighty  in  counsel, 
placable  by  those  who  humbled  themselves  before 
him,  favourable  to  those  whom  he  had  admitted  to 
his  fealty :  short  of  stature,  broad  of  chest,  with  an 
over-large  head,  with  little  eyes,  thin  beard,  hair 
sprinkled  with  grey,  turned-up  nose,  muddy  com- 
plexion.   All  these  were  the  characteristics  which 
recalled  his  origin '  [or,  to  use  our  modern  phrase- 
ology, the  distinctive  marks  of  the  Mongol  race]. 
'  By  natural    temperament   he  was   always  con- 
fident that  he  should  do  great  things,  but  this  con- 
fidence of  his  was  increased  by  finding  "the  sword  The  sword 
of  Mars,"  which  is  ever  held  sacred  by  the  Scythian  °fMars' 
kings,  and  which  is  said  to  have  been  discovered  in 
this  way.  A  certain  herdsman  saw  one  of  his  heifers 
limping,  and  being  anxious  to  discover  the  cause  of 
her  wound,  carefully  followed  her  bleeding  footprints 
through  the  grass,  till  at  length  he  came  to  the  sword, 
upon  which  the  heifer  had  incautiously  trodden  while 

1  Jordanes  xxxv. 

a  '  Bellorum  quidem  amator,  sed  ipse  manu  temperans.' 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[vi. 


433-441.  grazing,  and  having  dug  it  up  he  at  once  carried  it 
to  Attila.  He,  having  gratified  the  herdsman  with 
a  generous  present,  deemed  himself  to  be  now  ap- 
pointed sovereign  of  the  whole  world,  and  victory  in 
all  wars  to  be  assured  to  him  in  right  of  the  sword 
of  Mars/ 

433-  Immediately  upon  the  accession  of  Attila  and 

demands  at  Bleda,  they  demanded  and  obtained  from  the  East- 
Constanti-  ern  Emperor  the  duplication  of  their  yearly  stipen- 
nopk.       dium,  or,  as  they  more  truly  called  it,  tribute,  which 
was  now  raised  from  £14,000  to  £28,000.    At  the 
same  time  they  insisted  on  the  return  of  all  Huns  or 
Romans  who  had  fled  from  the  Hunnish  dominions 
and  taken  refuge  under  the  ineffectual  aegis  of  Rome. 
This  demand  for  the  surrender  of  refugees,  the  result, 
doubtless,  of  the  barbarous  despotism  of  the  Huns, 
was  afterwards  frequently  renewed,  and  its  imper- 
fect fulfilment  was  a  standing  grievance  against  the 
Eastern  Emperor. 
433-441.       For  the  next  eight  years,  however,  we  hear  but 
Extent  of  little  of  diplomatic  relations  between  Attila  and  the 
Empire      Empire.    There  can  be  little  doubt  that  during  these 
years  he  was  engaged  in  consolidating  his  dominions 
northwards  and  eastwards.    His  own  peculiar  terri- 
tory was  evidently  the  flat  land  of  what  we  now  call 
Hungary,  between  the  Danube  and  the  Carpathians ; 
but  the   nations  which   owned   his  over-lordship 
stretched  probably  from  the  Caspian  to  the  Rhine. 
Very  loose  and  ill-compacted,  no  doubt,  was  the 
Empire  of  the  Huns;  but  the  kings  of  the  Ostro- 
goths, Gepidae,  Alans,  Suevi,  and  Heruli,  all  fol- 


VI.] 


Placidia:  Attila. 


i83 


lowed  Attila  to  battle,  all  formed  part  of  that  con-  433-441- 
federacy  of  rapine  which  he  could  hurl  whenever  it 
pleased  him  against  a  civilised  and  wealthy  foe. 

In  the  East  another  Tartar  horde,  the  Geougen,  His  cam- 
perhaps  even  more  savage  than  the  Huns  them-  m 
selves,  threatened  the  new  barbarian  Empire ;  but 
Attila  appears  to  have  formed  an  alliance  with  China 
which  neutralised  their  hostility,  and  left  him  free  to 
prosecute  his  designs  of  conquest  west  of  the  Ural 
mountains  and  south  of  the  Caspian.  He  marched 
from  the  latter  sea  fifteen  days  southward  into  the 
Persian  kingdom,  and  ravaged  the  ancient  province 
of  Media.  He  evidently  ruled  without  a  rival  in 
European  Russia,  or  at  least  in  that  part  of  it  which 
was  then  worthy  of  even  a  barbarian's  notice,  and — 
what  is  more  important  to  us — he  had,  we  are  told, 
'subjected  the  islands  in  the  ocean  to  his  sway.' 
These  '  islands  in  the  ocean  '  can  be  none  other  than  Did  he 
the  islands  and  peninsula  of  Denmark  and  the drive  our 

Saxon 

southern  part  of  Sweden,  which  the  geographers  of forefathers 

the  time  considered  to  be  an  island.    Now,  however  from  their 

1  1  1      tt        -1  .homes? 

transient  may  nave  been  the  Hunnisn  conquest  01 

those  Baltic  lands,  of  Holstein,  Jutland,  and  South 
Sweden,  it  was  sufficient  to  produce  results  of  world- 
historical  importance.  In  those  lands  our  fathers, 
the  Saxons,  the  Jutes,  the  Angles,  were  dwelling  at 
the  commencement  of  the  fifth  century,  making 
doubtless  many  a  piratical  raid  against  the  '  Litus 
Saxom'cum'  in  Britain,  but,  as  a  rule,  returning  with 
their  plunder  to  their  homes  by  the  Baltic.  From 
those  lands,  before  the  year  441,  they  had  begun  to 


t84 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[vi. 


441-450.  swarm  forth,  alighting  upon  the  eastern  and  southern 
coasts  of  Britain,  coming  probably  with  wives  and 
children,  and  coming  to  conquer  and  to  remain. 
Why  this  new  and  sudden  change  in  the  current  of 
the  nation's  thoughts?  Surely  it  was  the  swarthy 
Hunnish  riders,  the  same  who  had  scared  the  Visi- 
goths across  the  Danube,  who  sent  the  Angle  and 
the  Saxon  in  their  long  ships  scudding  across  the 
German  Ocean.  If  this  be  so,  the  obscure  move- 
ments of  this  squalid  Hunnish  people  not  only 
threw  down  the  Empire  of  Rome,  but  indirectly 
caused  the  building  up  of  the  Empire  of  England. 
Attila  tor-  With  the  year  441,  Attila  re-enters  the  arena  of 
ments  the    Imperial  politics.    For  the  next  nine  years  he  sends 

Eastern  ,  ,       .  ,  ,  ut 

and  West-  ceaseless  embassies  to  the  Eastern  and  Western 
em  Courts  Empires,  ostensibly  to  press  for  the  redress  of  griev- 

with  his  .  . 

embassies  ances,  really  in  order  to  claim  higher  and  ever 
441-450.  higher  terms  for  the  maintenance  of  peace,  and  to 
enrich  his  favourites  at  Court  by  the  presents  which 
he  well  knows  that  the  trembling  Augusti  at  Con- 
stantinople and  Ravenna  will  give  them  in  order  to 
purchase  their  good  offices  with  their  master. 

The  standing  grievance  against  the  Eastern  Court 
was,  as  has  been  said,  the  alleged  failure  to  surrender 
the  fugitives,  Hunnish  princes  or  Roman  merchants, 
who  had  escaped  from  Attila's  dominions.  The 
chief  grievances  against  Placidia  and  Valentinian 
were  two :  the  vases  of  Sirmium  and  the  dowry  of 
the  lady  Honoria. 

(1)  A  certain  Gaulish  provincial  named  Con- 
stantius,  who  filled  the  post  of  Secretary  to  Attila, 


vi.] 


Placidia :  Attila. 


185 


when  the  city  of  Sirmium  was  besieged  by  the  Huns,  441-450. 
received  from  the  Bishop  of  that  city  a  deposit  of  the  The  matter 
rich  gold  Communion-plate  of  the  Church,  in  trust  to  %imim 
apply  the  proceeds  to  the  ransoming  of  the  Bishop  vases. 
and  his  flock.    Regardless,  however,  of  this  trust, 
he  carried  off  the  sacred  vessels  to  Rome  and  raised  a 
large  sum  of  money  upon  them  from  the  goldsmith, 
Silvanus.     Eventually  Sirmium  was  taken ;  Con- 
stantius,  a  traitor  to  all  parties,  was  crucified ;  and 
Attila,   claiming  a  sort  of  '  resulting  trust '  of  the 
vases  for  himself  as  conqueror,  insisted  that  Silvanus 
should  be  surrendered  to  him  as  having  stolen  his 
property. 

(2)  Honoria,  the  sister  of  Valentinian  III,  2,  Honoria  s 
young  and  giddy  girl,  had  compromised  her  reputa-  6* 
tion  by  an  intrigue  with  an  Imperial  chamberlain, 
and  was  sent  by  her  mother  to  the  Court  of  Con- 
stantinople in  a  kind  of  honourable  imprisonment. 
Her  spirit  chafed  at  the  seclusion  in  which  she  was 
kept  by  her  four  middle-aged  and  almost  nun-like 
cousins,  and  she  formed  the  wild  scheme  of  plighting 
her  troth  to  the  King  of  the  Huns,  and  calling  upon 
him  to  be  her  deliverer.  Attila  received  the  ring 
which  she  sent  him,  and,  though  he  had  already 
many  wives,  disdained  not  to  add  Honoria  to  the 
number,  so  far  at  least  as  this  that  *  he  claimed  as 
her  betrothed  husband  one  half  of  the  Western 
Empire  which  had  been  bequeathed  to  Honoria  by 
her  father,  but  out  of  which  she  was  kept  by  her 
brother's  covetousness.' 

The  most  important  of  the  return-embassies  was 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[vi. 


Embassy 
448. 


Imperial 
plot  for 
Attila  s 
assassina- 
tion. 


Attilas 
palace. 


of  that  which  was  sent  by  Theodosius  II,  in  the  year 
448,  to  the  Court  of  Attila.  The  chief  ambassador 
was  Maximin,  a  man  of  illustrious  birth  and  high 
official  rank  ;  and  the  official  whom  we  should  call  the 
Secretary  of  Legation  was  Priscus,  to  whose  able 
pen  we  owe  a  minute  account  of  the  embassy,  which 
is  certainly  the  most  interesting  historical  document 
of  the  century.  Both  Maximin  and  Priscus  were 
Pagans,  and  both  were  men  of  high  character. 
They  were  used,  however,  to  cloak  an  infamous  plot 
which  had  been  concerted  at  the  Court  of  Con- 

.  stantinople,  but  of  which  they  were  themselves 
ignorant,  for  the  assassination  of  Attila  by  one  of  the 
nobles  of  his  guard  named  Edeco.  It  is  like  reading 
a  chapter  of  Quentin  Durward  or  Les  Trots 
Mousquetaires,  to  see  the  way  in  which  the  plot  is 
hatched,  developed,  and  finally  detected  :  and  the 
honest  indignation  of  Attila  against  'his  slave, 
Theodosius,  who  paid  him  tribute  but  dared  to  plot 
the  assassination  of  his  master,'  is  finely  expressed, 
and  puts  the  savage  Hun  for  the  time  immeasurably 
above  the  cultured  and  nominally  Christian  Emperor. 
I  have  no  space  here,  however,  to  insert  these  details ; 
but,  though  it  has  been  often  quoted  before,  I  must 
transcribe  Priscus's  account  of  Attila's  palace  and  of  a 
banquet  therein,  to  which  he  and  his  chief  were  invited. 

'  Having  crossed  some  more  rivers  we  arrived  at 
length  at  a  very  large  village,  in  which  was  situated 
the  palace  of  Attila.  This  dwelling  was,  we  were 
told,  the  finest  building  in  all  the  country.  It  was 
made  of  logs  and  smooth  planks,  and  surrounded  by 


VI.] 


Placidia:  Attila. 


187 


wooden  palisades,  not  for  safety  but  for  ornament.  448- 
Next  to  the  King's  house,  that  of  Onegesius  (his 
chief  minister)  was  most  conspicuous.  It,  too,  was 
surrounded  by  a  palisading,  but  was  not  adorned 
with  towers  as  Attila's  was.  Not  far  from  this  en- 
closure was  a  bath  which  Onegesius  had  built  of 
stones  brought  from  Pannonian  quarries,  for  the  bar- 
barians who  dwell  there  have  not  a  stick  nor  a  stone 
in  their  own  country,  but  have  to  import  all  building 
materials  from  a  distance.  The  architect  of  this 
bath  was  carried  captive  from  Sirmium,  and  hoped 
to  receive  his  freedom  as  the  reward  of  his  ingenuity; 
but  unconsciously  he  prepared  for  himself  a  worse 
lot  than  that  of  ordinary  slavery,  for  Onegesius  made 
him  his  bath-man,  and  he  had  to  wait  upon  him  and 
his  retinue  whenever  they  had  a  mind  to  bathe.' 

The  Banquet. 

'  When  we  returned  to  our  tent,  there  came  an  Attila 's 
invitation  to  us  both  from  Attila  to  be  present  at  his  ban(lucL 
banquet,  which  would  take  place  about  3  p.m.  Punc- 
tually, at  the  time  appointed,  we  went  to  the  dinner 
and  stood  on  the  threshold  before  Attila.  According 
to  the  custom  of  the  country,  the  cup-bearer  brought 
us  a  bowl  of  wine  that  we  might  pray  for  the  good- 
luck  of  the  host  before  taking  our  seats.  When  this 
was  done,  and  we  had  just  tasted  the  bowl,  we  came 
to  the  chairs  of  state  on  which  we  were  to  sit  at 
dinner-time.  All  the  seats  of  the  guests  were  ranged 
along  the  walls  on  either  side  of  the  building.  In  the 
centre  of  all  sat  Attila  on  a  couch,  with  another  couch 


i88 


Dynasty  of  Theodosms. 


[VI. 


behind  him,  behind  which  again  a  flight  of  steps  led 
up  to  his  bed,  hidden  by  curtains  of  white  linen  and  * 
variegated  stuffs,  ornamentally  arranged  as  the 
Greeks  and  Romans  prepare  the  nuptial  couch.' 
Then  the  order  of  precedence  is  described.  The 
Ambassadors,  to  their  evident  surprise,  found  that 
the  seats  of  honour  were  given,  not  to  them,  but  to 
Hunnish  nobles. 

i  Opposite  to  Onegesius  on  a  double  chair  sat  two 
of  the  sons  of  Attila,  while  his  eldest  son  sat  on 
Attila' s  couch,  not  near  to  him  but  on  its  extreme 
verge,  and  with  eyes  cast  down  upon  the  ground 
through  awe  of  his  father.  When  all  were  thus 
arranged  in  order,  the  cup-bearer  came  in  and 
handed  to  Attila  his  ivy-wood  drinking-cup  filled 
with  wine.  When  he  had  received  it,  he  saluted 
him  who  sat  nearest  him  in  rank.  The  guest  thus 
honoured  stood  up,  and  it  was  not  etiquette  for  him 
to  sit  down  till  he  had  sipped  or  drunk  off  the  wine 
and  returned  the  goblet  to  the  cup-bearer.  In  the 
same  way  all  who  were  present  showed  their  respect 
to  the  King :  he  remaining  seated  all  the  while,  they 
stood  up,  received  the  cup,  greeted  him  and  tasted 
the  wine.  Behind  each  guest  stood  a  cup-bearer, 
whose  business  it  was  to  go  into  the  centre  of  the 
hall,  each  in  his  proper  order,  and  meet  Attila's  cup- 
bearer coming  out  from  beside  his  master. 

'Then  entered  first  Attila's  servant  bearing  a 
plate  full  of  meat,  and  after  him  came  the  general 
waiters  who  laid  bread  and  other  victuals  on  the 
tables,  of  which  there  was  one  for  every  three  or 


VI.] 


Placidia:  Attila. 


189 


four  guests,  or  sometimes  more.  For  all  the  rest  of  44s- 
the  barbarians  and  for  us  a  costly  banquet  had  been 
prepared,  which  was  served  on  silver  dishes,  but 
Attila  had  plain  meat  on  his  wooden  plate.  He 
showed  also  simple  tastes  in  all  his  other  surround- 
ings. For  the  other  banqueters  had  golden  and 
silver  drinking-cups  put  beside  them,  but  his  was  of 
wood.  His  raiment  also  was  quite  plain,  distin- 
guished by  its  cleanness  only  from  that  of  any  of  his 
followers;  and  neither  the  sword  which  was  hung 
up  beside  him,  nor  the  clasps  of  his  barbaresque 
shoes,  nor  the  bridle  of  his  horse,  was  adorned,  as 
is  the  case  with  other  Huns,  with  gold  or  precious 
stones  or  anything  else  that  is  costly/ 

Priscus  then  again  describes  the  drinking  of  Attila' s 
health,  which  was  performed  by  all  the  guests,  stand- 
ing, between  each  of  the  courses. 

'  When  evening  came  on,  torches  were  lighted,  and 
two  barbarians  coming  in  and  standing  opposite  to 
Attila,  recited  songs  previously  composed,  in  which 
they  sang  of  his  victories  and  his  warlike  virtues. 
The  banqueters  gazed  earnestly  on  the  minstrels ; 
some  were  delighted  with  the  poems  ;  others,  remem- 
bering past  conflicts,  felt  their  souls  stirred  within 
them  ;  while  the  old  were  melted  into  tears  by  the 
thought  that  their  bodies  were  grown  weak  through 
age  and  their  hot  hearts  were  compelled  into  re- 
pose. 

'When  the  songs  were  ended  a  mad  Hun  came  for- 
ward, who  by  his  strange,  wild,  incessant  chatter  moved 
all  the  guests  to  laughter.   After  him  entered  Zercon 


igo 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[VI. 


the  Moor '  [whom  we  know  from  another  source  1  to 
have  been  a  hump-backed  dwarf  with  ape-like  nose]. 
'  By  his  garb,  his  voice,  and  his  wild  promiscuous 
jumble  of  Latin,  Hunnish,  and  Gothic  words,  he 
sent  all  present,  except  Attila,  into  fits  of  laughter. 
The  King,  however,  remained  quite  unmoved,  changed 
not  a  line  of  his  countenance,  and  neither  by  word 
nor  deed  showed  the  slightest  enjoyment  of  the  joke, 
except  that  when  his  youngest  son,  Ernak,  came  in 
and  stood  beside  him  he  gently  pinched  his  cheek 
and  looked  upon  him  with  kindly  gaze.  When  I 
expressed  my  wonder  at  his  neglect  of  his  other 
sons  and  the  favour  which  he  showed  to  this  one, 
the  barbarian  who  sat  beside  me  and  who  under- 
stood the  Italian  language,  after  making  me  promise 
secrecy,  assured  me  that  the  prophets  had  foretold  to 
Attila  that  his  race  should  suffer  reverses  and  then 
be  raised  up  again  by  this  son. 

'  When  we  had  sat  at  the  banquet  till  far  into  the 
night,  we  departed,  not  wishing  to  persist  in  drinking 
any  longer/ 

From  this  single  picture  we  may  imagine  the 
scenes  which  frequently  occurred  when  the  Ambas- 
sadors of  Theodosius  and  Valentinian  came,  with 
fearful  hearts,  into  the  presence  of  Attila,  striving, 
yet  striving  in  vain,  to  keep  up  the  traditions  of 
the  majesty  of  Rome.  We  may  imagine,  too,  the 
reception  which  would  be  accorded  to  the  Teu- 
tonic under-kings,  Gepid,  Herul,  Ostrogoth,  when 
they  came,  as  assuredly  they  would  come,  at  least 
1  Suidas. 


VI.] 


Placidia:  Attila. 


191 


once  a  year,  into  the  presence  of  their  supreme  45°- 
lord. 

The  years  from  441  to  450,  the  era  of  embassies,  Deaths  of 
came  to  an  end.   In  450  death  wrought  great  changes  ^^l^eo, 
in  the  palaces  both  of  Ravenna  and  Constantinople,  dosius  II, 
In  the  West,  Placidia  died,  and  the  functions  as  well  45°- 
as  the  show  of  governing  had  to  be  assumed  by 
Valentinian  III,  who  still  for  a  time  gave  his  con- 
fidence loyally  to  Aetius.  In  the  East,  Theodosius  II 
died  of  injuries  received  by  a  fall  from  a  runaway 
horse,  and  the  sovereign  power  became  vested  in  his 
sister  Pulcheria  and  her  husband,  the  brave  old 
soldier,  Marcian.     The  next  Ambassador  sent  by  Marcian, 
Marcian's  orders  to  the  Court  of  Attila  took  a  higher  new 

,  Eastern 

and  more  manly  tone  than  the  Hun  had  heard  during  Emperor, 
the  whole  reign  of  Theodosius.    It  was  clear  that  wlU  not 

tfHcklc  to 

there  would  be  no  more  chance  of  sending  oppres-  j^/a, 
sive  embassies,  of  doubling  and  quadrupling  the 
'tribute/  or  of  worrying  about  the  return  of  refugees. 
Any  further  advantages  that  were  to  be  gained  from 
the  East  must  be  gained  at  the  point  of  the  sword  : 
and  upon  a  survey  of  the  whole  situation,  Attila 
decided  that  since  the  time  had  come  for  war  it 
should  be  war,  not  with  the  East  but  with  the  West, 
not  with  the  grim  Marcian  but  with  the  soft  and 
indolent  Valentinian. 

There  is  thus  a  certain  correspondence  between 
the  careers  of  Alaric  and  Attila.  Each  took  up  a 
position  on  the  confines  of  the  two  Empires.  Each 
at  first  spent  some  years  in  making  war  or  threaten- 
ing war  on  the  Eastern  Empire,  and  each  finally 


192 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[VI. 


450. 


Attila  pre- 
pares for 
war  with 
the  West- 
ern E??i- 
pire. 


Alliance 
betiveen 
that  Em- 
pire and  the 
Visigoths. 


devoted  his  whole  energies  to  war  with  the  Empire 
of  the  West. 

Pretexts  for  war  were  of  course  easily  found.  The 
great  question  of  the  vases  of  Sirmium  was  probably 
still  unsettled.  Honoria's  dowry  had  certainly  not 
been  handed  over  to  the  affianced  Hun.  Aetius, 
warring  in  Gaul,  had  seated  on  one  of  the  Frankish 
thrones  a  young  prince  (possibly  Meroveus),  whose 
supplanted  rival  claimed  the  assistance  of  Attila. 
Above  all,  the  Huns  and  their  allies  yearned  to  burn, 
to  plunder,  to  slay,  and  the  Western  provinces  alone 
could  at  the  moment  satiate  this  desire.  Attila  did 
not,  however,  entirely  neglect  the  prudent  precautions 
of  a  statesman.  He  concluded  an  alliance,  offensive 
and  defensive,  with  Gaiseric,  the  Vandal  conqueror 
of  Carthage,  an  alliance  which,  had  it  been  followed 
up  by  a  well-timed  Vandal  attack  on  Rome,  might 
probably  have  ended  the  life  of  the  Western  Empire. 

On  the  other  hand,  Aetius,  at  this  crisis  of  the 
fortunes  of  Gaul,  concluded  an  alliance  which  was 
of  infinite  importance,  both  for  its  immediate  results 
and  for  the  rearrangement  of  parties  to  which  it 
pointed  in  the  not  distant  future.  Theodoric  the 
Visigoth,  successor  of  Walia,  reigned  at  Toulouse 
over  a  well-compacted  monarchy  which  had  been 
rapidly  growing  in  strength  and  in  civilisation.  We 
are  now  speaking  of  a  time  forty-one  years  after 
Alaric's  sack  of  Rome  :  and  the  days  when  the  Visi- 
goths were  a  wandering  horde  of  foederati,  seeking 
on  almost  any  terms  for  a  recognised  position  within 
the  Empire,  are  already  far  below  the  horizon.  Theo- 


VI.] 


Placidia:  Attila. 


193 


doric  is  the  acknowledged  lord  of  one  of  the  fairest  451- 
portions  of  Gaul ;  his  people  have  become  a  domi- 
nant caste  of  warriors,  whose  ascendancy  the  Pro- 
vincials do  not  dream  of  disputing ;  but  Aetius  has 
been  for  years  struggling,  sometimes  with  the  aid  of 
Hunnish  auxiliaries,  to  prevent  him  from  extending 
his  dominion  yet  further  over  Gaul. 

Now,  in  the  presence  of  this  vaster  danger,  this 
thunder-cloud  rolling  up  from  the  plains  of  Hungary, 
which  threatens  to  overwhelm  Goth  and  Roman  in 
one  common  ruin,  all  these  bickerings  cease.  The 
Visigoth  no  doubt  is  yet  barbarous,  but  he  is  rapidly 
becoming  civilised ;  while  the  Hun  is  an  utter 
savage.  The  Visigoth,  though  an  Arian,  is  a  Chris- 
tian ;  the  Hun  is  a  brutal  Pagan.  The  Visigoth  de- 
sires, it  is  true,  to  rule  in  Gaul ;  but  the  Hun  will 
utterly  destroy  it.  The  result  of  these  considera- 
tions was  that  Aetius  and  Theodoric  formed  an 
alliance  against  the  invader,  and,  notwithstanding 
some  delays  and  some  misunderstandings,  they 
seem  on  the  whole  to  have  both  honourably  ob- 
served its  obligations. 

At  Eastertide,  451,  the  waters  of  the  great  deep  A ttila  en- 
were  broken  up.  The  motley  host,  said  to  number  ^  Gaul, 
half  a  million  of  men,  marshalled  by  'a  mob  of 
kings1,'  but  all  trembling  at  the  nod  of  Attila,  moved 
westward,  hewed  down  trees  in  the  Thuringer 
Wald,  and,  on  the  rude  boats  and  rafts  which  they 
thus  constructed,  crossed  the  Rhine.    All  the  towns 

1  '  Turba  rcgum '  (Jordanes  xxxviii).     Compare   the  story  of 
Talma  playing  to  a  parquet  of  Kings  in  the  days  of  Napoleon. 

O 


194 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[VI. 


451.  in  Belgic  Gaul — Tongres,  Metz,  Rheims — yielded  to 
their  savage  onslaught.  Everywhere  flew  the  red 
banner  of  fire.  The  citizens  were  slain  on  their 
hearth-stones ;  the  priests,  against  whom  the  in- 
vaders had  an  especial  hatred,  were  murdered  be- 
fore the  altars,  on  which  glittered  the  coveted  silver 
and  gold.  Paris  escaped  destruction  ;  whether  saved 
by  the  prayers  of  Sainte  Genevieve  or  guarded  by 
its  own  comparative  insignificance  it  is  not  for  us 
to  decide.  So  the  savage  host,  having  rolled  on 
through  Belgic  and  Lugdunensian  Gaul,  reached  the 
great  river  Loire,  which  circled  the  kingdom  of  the 
Siege  of  Visigoths.  Here  they  laid  siege  to  Orleans,  that 
Orleans.  Q^  go  memorable  for  her  sieges.  The  battering- 
rams  (for  Attila  possessed  these  engines  of  war) 
were  shaking  the  walls  of  the  city,  and  the  inhab- 
itants feared  that  only  ruin  was  before  them.  But 
their  Bishop,  Anianus,  bade  them  be  of  good  courage, 
and  foretold  that  deliverance  would  reach  them  on 
the  24th  of  June.  On  that  day,  while  they  were 
praying  in  the  church,  Anianus  sent  a  messenger 
to  mount  the  ramparts  and  see  if  help  were  ap- 
proaching. The  messenger  went  once,  twice,  in  vain. 
The  third  time  he  brought  word  that  a  cloud  of  dust 
was  seen  upon  the  horizon.  It  was  caused  by  the 
troops  of  Aetius  and  Theodoric,  who,  after  some 
delay  and  wavering  of  purpose,  had  joined  forces 
and  were  approaching  to  deliver  the  city.  Attila, 
for  some  reason  with  which  we  are  not  acquainted, 
declined  to  await  their  attack,  and  began  to  retrace 
his  steps  towards  the  Rhine.     Doubtless  his  vast 


VI.] 


Placidia :  Attila. 


195 


army  was  difficult  to  feed,  and  difficult  to  keep  to-  451- 
gether,  in  the  country  which  they  had  so  ruthlessly 
ravaged ;  and  probably  Attila  foresaw  great  danger 
in  attempting  to  cross  the  broad  Loire  in  the  face 
of  a  large  army,  which  united  Gothic  courage  to 
Roman  science  of  war.  Whatever  the  cause,  he  Attila 
retreated,  and  reached  the  city  of  Troyes,  which  he  retreah- 
consented  to  exempt  from  pillage  on  condition  that 
the  Bishop,  St.  Lupus,  whose  saintly  appearance 
awed  and  impressed  him,  should  accompany  him  as 
far  as  the  Rhine.  On  the  Mauriac  plain,  some  five 
miles  from  Troyes,  the  pursuing  armies  came  up 
with  him  ;  and  here  was  fought  that  '  cruel,  mani- 
fold, monstrous,  and  stubborn  battle  1 '  to  which  his- 
torians have  given,  not  quite  correctly,  the  name  of 
the  Battle  of  Chalons. 

Before  the  fight  began,  Attila  consulted  the  rude  '  Battle  of 
auguries  of  his  nation,  drawn  from  the  inspection  °^ j^T^.  l 
the  bowels  of  a  sheep  and  the  markings  of  some 
bones.  The  soothsayers  predicted  'ill  fortune  to 
the  Huns,'  but  qualified  it  with  the  assurance  that 
the  leader  of  their  foes  should  fall.  The  hope  that 
Aetius,  the  one  great  Roman  champion,  would  perish, 
seemed  to  console  Attila  for  the  presage  of  his  own 
defeat. 

It  was  indeed  a  battle  of  many  nations.  Under 
the  standards  of  the  king  of  the  Huns  marched 
Ostrogoths,  Gepidae,  Heruli,  and  a  host  of  less- 
known  nationalities,  Teutonic,  Slavonic,  and  Tura- 
nian.    The  three   kings  of  the   Ostrogoths,  and 

1  '  Bellum  atrox,  multiplex,  immane,  pertinax.'    Jordanes  xl. 
O  2 


196  Dynasty  of  Theodosius.  [vi. 

451.  especially  the  eldest  of  them,  Walamir,  and  Ardaric, 
king  of  the  Gepidae,  were  Attila's  chief  advisers  and 
lieutenants  on  the  battle-field. 

The  allied  army,  on  the  other  hand,  contained  not 
only  Visigoths,  who  were  posted  on  the  right  wing, 
and  Romans,  who  were  on  the  left,  but  Franks, 
Saxons,  Bretons,  Burgundians,  and  a  number  of 
other  tribes  settled  in  Gaul.  Chief  among  these 
lesser  nationalities  were  the  Alans,  who  were  settled 
at  Valence  on  the  Rhone.  They  were  near  of  kin 
to  the  Huns,  and  their  king,  Sangiban,  was  sus- 
pected of  intending  to  desert  to  them  on  the  battle- 
field. He  was  therefore  placed  in  the  centre  of  the 
allied  line,  tightly  wedged  in  between  Romans  and 
Visigoths,  vboth  of  whom  watched  his  movements 
narrowly  and  prevented  him  from  accomplishing  the 
meditated  treachery. 

Beyond  this  statement  as  to  the  Alans,  and  Attila's 
orders  to  his  troops  to  neglect  the  Romans  and 
strike  hardest  at  the  Visigoths,  we  hear  little  or 
nothing  as  to  the  tactics  of  the  day.  The  battle 
began  at  three  in  the  afternoon,  and  raged  on,  upon 
a  line  of  immense  length,  till  the  end  of  the  July  day. 
Theodoric,  the  Visigothic  king,  was  thrown  from  his 
horse  and  accidentally  trampled  to  death  by  his  own 
Hunnish  countrymen.  His  men,  however,  rushed  forward 
defeat.  and  broke  the  Hunnish  line.  Attila  himself  fled 
and  took  shelter  behind  his  rampart  of  waggons. 
Thorismund,  son  of  Theodoric,  and  Aetius  both 
lost  their  way  in  the  darkness  which  had  now 
come  on,  and  nearly  fell  victims  to  their  rashness, 


vi.] 


Placidia :  Attila. 


197 


having  actually  wandered  into  the  quarters  of  the  45 r- 
foe. 

The  next  morning  dawned  upon  a  ghastly  sight.  Results  of 
It  is  said  that  177,000  men  were  slain  in  the  'mani- the  baitle- 
fold  and  monstrous  battle.'  This  number  represents 
a  slaughter  nearly  twice  as  great  as  that  at  Leipsic, 
with  all  the  improvements  in  the  machinery  of  de- 
struction which  fifteen  centuries  have  wrought.  It 
is  doubtful  whether  we  ought  to  listen  with  perfect 
faith  to  calculations  which  were  probably  very  hasty 
and  fragmentary.  But  it  is  not  doubtful  that  the 
slaughter  on  the  Mauriac  plain  was  one  of  the 
greatest  ever  witnessed  on  any  battle-field  before  the 
invention  of  gunpowder.  And,  measured  by  its  re- 
sults, the  battle  was  even  greater  than  when  we  take 
account  of  the  carnage.  For  this  was  pre-eminently 
one  of  1  the  decisive  battles  of  history/  .since  it 
settled  the  question  of  supremacy  in  Europe  against 
the  Hun,  the  squalid,  unprogressive  heathen  Tartar, 
and  kept  the  ground  clear  for  the  Romance,  the 
Teutonic,  and  the  Slavic  peoples. 

The  expectations  of  both  armies  that  the  battle  Attila 
would  be  renewed  on  the  morrow  were  not  fulfilled.  r*treats 

from  Gaul. 

Attila,  behind  his  entrenchments,  bade  his  trumpets 
sound,  and  feigned  a  fresh  attack,  but  all  the  time  he 
knew  himself  beaten,  and  had  a  pyre  of  Hunnish 
saddles  prepared,  into  which,  had  his  entrenchments 
been  stormed,  he  would  have  cast  himself  headlong, 
that  living  or  dead  he  might  escape  the  insults  of 
his  foes.  Meanwhile  the  Goths,,  having  at  length 
found  their  old  king's  body,  buried  him  on  the  battle- 


198  Dynasty  of  Theodosius.  [vi. 

field  to  the  music  of  their  rough  war-songs.  Thoris- 
mund  then  marched  rapidly  to  Toulouse  to  claim  his 
father's  throne.  Aetius  also  quitted  the  field,  and 
Attila  was  saved  from  utter  destruction,  whether 
owing  to  the  too  great  prudence  of  the  allies  or  to 
a  want  of  perfect  harmony  between  them,  it  is 
impossible  now  to  determine.  The  Hunnish  king 
reached  the  Rhine  without  further  molestation,  and 
thence  sent  the  venerable  Bishop  Lupus  back  to 
Troyes,  asking  him  to  pray  to  the  Almighty  for  the 
welfare  of  his  late  entertainer. 

The  next  year  (452)  Attila  determined  to  wipe  out 
the  shame  of  his  defeat  by  an  invasion,  not  this  time 
of  Gaul,  but  of  Italy.  He  crossed  the  Julian  Alps, 
entered  Venetia  by  the  well-known  route,  trodden  of 
late  by  so  many  armies,  and  invested  the  great,  the 
hitherto  impregnable  city  of  Aquileia.  In  two  stubborn 
sieges  at  least,  probably  in  more,  this  city  had  shown 
herself  the  unconquerable  bulwark  of  North-east 
Italy ;  and  now,  so  long  was  the  investment  by  the 
Huns  vainly  protracted,  that  it  seemed  as  if  she 
would  once  more  prove  her  title  to  that  name.  At- 
tila was  about  to  abandon  the  siege  in  despair,  when 
suddenly  looking  up,  he  beheld  the  storks  collecting 
their  young  broods  about  them  and  preparing  to 
fly  from  the  city.  The  omen  struck  him.  He 
pointed  it  out  to  his  soldiers,  and  in  a  short,  inspirit- 
ing speech,  urged  them  to  renew  their  attack  on 
a  city  which,  as  the  heaven-guided  instinct  of  the 
birds  told  them,  was  doomed  to  ruin.  The  appeal 
was  fatally  successful.    The  fierce  Huns  once  more 


vi.] 


Placidia:  Attila. 


199 


moved  their  engines  against  the  walls  ;  they  effected  a  452- 
practicable  breach  ;  they  swarmed  in  ;  they  slew,  they 
pillaged,  they  ravished.    The  rage  of  Attila  at  his  Aquilcia 
long  detention  before  the  walls   made  the  usual  t(*ken  and, 

t  destroyed. 

savagery  of  Tartar  destruction  more  savage ;  and 
soon  there  was  nothing  left  of  Aquileia — its  Mint,  its 
Baths,  its  Theatres — but  a  smoking  heap  of  ruins. 
Tradition  says  that  Attila  caused  a  mound  to  be 
raised  at  Udine,  twenty  miles  distant,  and  stood  on 
the  top  of  it  to  see  the  flames  ascend  from  the 
burning  city. 

All  the  sister  cities,  beautiful  and  stately,  which  Other 
were  mirrored  in  the  waters  of  the  North-western  Adlmtu 

cities 

Adriatic,  shared  the  fate  of  Aquileia.    The  Roman  ruined. 
colony  of  Concordia ;  Altinum,  with  its  fair  white 
villas  ;    Patavium,    the   birthplace   of  Livy,  were 
levelled  with  the  ground.    A  few  trembling  fugi- 
tives from  all  these  cities,  including,  perhaps,  some 
from  Aquileia  herself,  sought  shelter  in  the  wide 
lagoons  at  the  mouths  of  the  Piave  and  the  Brenta. 
These  miserable  refugees  founded  a  gorgeous  city,  Founders 
whose  fame  spread  far  and  wide  over  all  lands,  and  °f  Vemu 
whose  merchandise  was  sold  even  on  those  dreary 
plains  of  Central  Asia  over  which  Attila's  ancestors 
once  wandered.    She  was  the  affianced  City  of  the 
Sea— Venice. 

Attila  marched  westwards  through  the  broad  green  Attila  at 
plain  which  we  now  call  Lombardy,  and  as  he  went  Mllan- 
his  fury  somewhat  abated.    All  the  cities,  Verona, 
Pavia,  Milan,  and  the  rest  opened  their  gates  to  him  ; 
and  in  all,  the  Huns  plundered  at  their  will,  but  the 


200 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[vi. 


452-  lives  of  the  inhabitants  were  spared  and  the  buildings 
were  left  unburned.  At  Milan,  Attila  saw  with 
contemptuous  amusement  a  picture  representing  the 
Scythians  prostrate  under  the  feet  of  the  Eastern  and 
Western  Emperors.  He  allowed  the  picture  to 
remain,  but  ordered  an  artist  to  paint  on  the  opposite 
wall  the  King  of  the  Huns  seated  on  his  throne,  with 
Theodosius  and  Valentinian  emptying  their  sacks  of 
aurei  at  his  feet. 

Embassy  of    During  all  this  time  abject  terror  reigned  in  the 

Pope  Leo.  of  Rome^    where,    and  not  at  Ravenna,  the 

Emperor  appears  to  have  been  residing.  Even  the 
stout  heart  of  Aetius  seems  to  have  failed  him,  and 
he  is  said  to  have  counselled  Valentinian  to  flee  from 
Italy,  probably  to  the  Narbonensian  Gaul,  almost  the 
only  Western  province  which  was  left  to  Rome. 
However,  it  was  decided  to  try  what  effect  a  humble 
embassy  might  have  in  mitigating  the  wrath  of  the 
terrible  Hun.  Two  of  the  highest  officials  in  the 
Empire  were  sent  on  this  embassy,  and  with  them 
went  Pope  Leo  I,  greatest  in  character  and  mental 
gifts  of  all  the  men  who  had  yet  sat  in  the  chair  of 
St.  Peter,  rightly  named  Leo,  for  a  more  lion-hearted 
man  had  not  been  found  even  among  the  Consuls 
and  Emperors  of  Rome. 

Its  success.  The  embassy  found  the  Hunnish  king  by  the 
banks  of  the  Mincio,  probably  not  far  from  the  city 
of  Mantua.  Strange  to  say,  they  won  a  peaceful  and 
easy  victory.  <!  He  laid  aside  his  fury  and  excite- 
ment, and  returning  by  the  way  that  he  had  come,  that 

1  Jordanes. 


VI.] 


Placidia:  Attila. 


201 


is  to  say  beyond  the  Danube,  he  departed  with  the  452- 
promise  of  peace,  uttering,  however,  this  one  warning 
and  threat  above  all  others,  that  he  would  bring 
yet  heavier  calamities  upon  Italy  unless  they  sent  to 
him  Honoria,  with  the  portion  of  the  Imperial 
treasure  which  was  her  due.'  We  shall  probably 
seek  in  vain  for  any  reasons  of  state-craft  which 
could  have  induced  Attila  thus  to  forego  the  supreme 
prize  of  barbarian  conquest,  the  sack  of  Rome,  when 
victory  lay  ready  to  his  hand.  Apparently  the 
reason  assigned  by  contemporary  chroniclers  is  the 
true  one.  It  was  the  influence  exerted  over  him  by 
the  saintly  majesty  of  Leo,  which  induced  him  to 
sheathe  the  sword  and  to  be  satisfied  with  promise 
of  tribute  when  he  might  have  grasped  the  reality  of 
plunder.  There  was  in  Attila's  character,  with  all 
its  brutal  savageness,  something  almost  like  magnani- 
mity, a  certain  readiness,  when  his  own  greatness 
was  acknowledged  and  when  his  enemy  had  humbled 
himself  in  the  dust  before  him,  to  accept  his  humilia- 
tion, and  if  he  trampled,  not  to  trample  him  to  death. 
There  was  also  in  his  heathen  soul  some  capacity  of 
being  impressed  by  those  whose  spirits  really  rose 
above  the  clash  of  the  kingdoms  of  the  world,  into 
the  serener  air  of  the  Kingdom  of  God.  There  may 
possibly  have  been  mingled  with  this  feeling  a 
remembrance  of  the  premature  death  of  Alaric  which 
followed  so  soon  upon  his  conquest  of  the  Eternal 
City,  and  a  fear  that  he  too,  if  he  sacked  Rome, 
might  find  his  grave  in  Italy. 

Whatever  the  cause,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 


202 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[VI. 


452~4-  the  success  of  Pope  Leo,  when  the  Emperor  and  the 
Master  of  the  Soldiery  confessed  that  they  saw  only 
ruin  before  them,  profoundly  stirred  the  hearts  of 
the  Roman  people.  The  events  of  the  year  452 
contributed  enormously  to  raise  the  Vatican  above 
the  Palatine,  and  to  give  the  Pope  the  moral,  if  not 
yet  the  political,  sovereignty  of  Rome. 
Death  of  If  Attila  had  planned  for  himself  the  luxury  of 
Atttla,  another  raid  upon  Italy  in  453,  his  schemes  were 
suddenly  and  unexpectedly  frustrated.  In  addition 
to  the  many  wives  whom  he  already  possessed,  he 
married  a  beautiful  damsel  named  Ildico.  At  the 
wedding  banquet  he  drank  copiously,  and  afterwards 
slept  the  sleep  of  intoxication.  In  the  midst  of  it  he 
was  attacked  by  a  violent  bleeding  from  the  nose, 
which  proved  fatal  to  him  in  his  drunken  stupor. 
That  same  night,  it  is  said,  the  brave  Emperor 
Marcian  had  a  dream,  in  which  he  saw  the  bow  of 
Attila  broken. 

The  The  great  Hunnish  king  received  a  magnificent 

Hunmsh    burial  from  his  people.    Three  coffins,  one  of  gold, 

poiver 

broken.  one  °f  silver,  one  of  iron,  enclosed  his  body,  but 
the  precise  place  of  his  burial  was  kept  a  secret. 
After  his  death  the  ascendancy  which  by  his  own 
tremendous  force  of  character  he  had  been  able  to 
exert  over  many  subject  nations,  suddenly  vanished. 
His  sons  proposed  to  partition  his  realm  among  them- 
selves. The  auxiliary  peoples  resented  the  proposal : 
the  great  confederacy  was  broken  up  :  Ostrogoths, 

454.  Gepidae,  and  Heruli  met  the  young  Hunnish  kings 
in  battle  by  the  Pannonian  river  Netad.  Attila's 


VI.] 


Placidia :  Attila. 


203 


sons  were  beaten,  his  first-born  slain,  the  rest  put  454- 
to  flight.     Ernak,  his  father's  favourite,  became  a 
subject-ally  of  the  Eastern  Emperor,  and  ruled  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Danube. 

But  the  great  Hunnish  Empire  after  its  short  and 
terrible  day  of  dominion  was  now  a  thing  of  the  past, 
a  vanished  nightmare  of  the  nations.  The  fierce 
Hun  had  himself  built  nothing  that  endured,  though 
indirectly  he  had  contributed  to  three  of  the  greatest 
changes  in  Europe, — the  'making  of  England,'  the 
establishment  of  the  Papal  Supremacy,  the  founda- 
tion of  Venice. 


LECTURE  VII. 

Gaiseric. 

We  have  seen  that  though  the  north-east  corner 
of  Italy  was  cruelly  ravaged  by  the  Huns,  the  Eter- 
nal City  herself  escaped  the  degradation  of  their 
presence  as  conquerors.  But  the  blow,  which  had 
been  averted  by  the  embassy  of  Pope  Leo,  fell  three 
years  later  (455),  the  agents  of  destruction  being 
now,  not  the  Huns,  but  the  Vandals.  I  purposely 
abstained  in  my  last  lecture  from  making  any  but 
the  slightest  allusion  to  the  Vandal  conquest  of 
Africa  (428-439),  though  that  was  in  fact  one  of  the 
most  important  events  under  the  government  of 
Placidia,  and  certainly  the  event  which  produced 
the  most  permanently  disastrous  consequences  for 
Rome. 

Early  his-  If  we  go  back  from  the  fifth  century  after  Christ 
tory  of  the  t   ^   g    .  we  gj^j  £n(j        the  Vandals  were  then 

Vandals.  ' 

dwelling  not  far  from  the  Baltic  coast  in  the  coun- 
tries which  we  now  call  West  Prussia  and  Posen. 
A  little  later  on,  sharing  the  general  southward 
movement  of  all  these  races,  they  appear  in  Silesia 
and  give  their  name  to  the  Vandalici  Monies,  which 
are  the  same  that  are  now  called  Riesengebirge,  the 
Mountains  of  the  Giants.    Possibly  there  may  be  in 


VII.] 


Gaiseric. 


205 


the  new  name  some  dim  remembrance  of  the  old,  for 
we  are  told 1  that  the  Vandals,  as  well  as  the  Gepidae, 
were  nearly  allied  in  blood  to  the  Goths,  and  like 
them  were  tall  of  stature,  fair-skinned,  yellow-haired, 
and  handsome. 

In  the  reign  of  Marcus  Aurelius  (171)  we  find 
them  in  the  plains  of  Hungary  warring  against  the 
Romans.  Three  years  later  they  have  become  the 
allies  of  Rome,  and  this  attitude  of  friendship  to- 
wards the  Empire  is  generally  maintained  by  them 
for  more  than  two  centuries  (174-406).  Especially 
was  this  the  case  in  the  latter  part  of  the  reign  of 
the  Emperor  Constantine  (330),  when  the  Vandals 
had  suffered  a  terrible  and  well-nigh  exterminating 
defeat  at  the  hands  of  their  Gothic  kindred,  by  the 
banks  of  the  river  Marisia.  The  survivors  of  that 
terrible  day  humbly  pleaded  for  permission  to  enter 
the  province  of  Pannonia  on  the  western  shore  of 
the  Danube,  and  there  to  dwell  as  focderati  under 
the  protection  of  the  Empire.  For  more  than  sixty 
years  they  faithfully  observed  this  treaty.  This  was 
probably  the  time  in  which  they  embraced  the  Chris- 
tian faith  under  that  Arian  form  of  it  which  Ulfilas 
had  preached  to  the  Goths.  Many  of  their  chiefs 
doubtless  entered  the  service  of  the  Emperors  as 
life-guardsmen,  and  it  was  probably  in  this  way  that 
the  father  of  the  great  Stilicho,  though  a  Vandal, 
rose  high  enough  to  prepare  a  splendid  position  for 
his  son. 

The  calumniators  of  Stilicho  attributed  to  him,  The  Van- 
1  By  Procopius,  de  Bello  Vandal,  i.  2.  C    I  ( 


2o6 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[VII. 


406-  409.    probably  most  unjustly,  a  share  in  the  next  develop- 

ment of  Vandal  history.  It  came  to  pass  in  the  year 
406,  in  the  interval  of  suspense  between  the  first 
and  second  invasions  of  Alaric,  and  just  after  the 
exhausting  campaign  with  the  terrible  Radagaisus, 
that  (as  has  been  already  mentioned)  three  great 
barbarian  hordes,  taking  advantage  of  the  defence- 
less state  of  the  Rhine-frontier,  denuded  of  its 
legions  for  the  defence  of  Italy,  poured  westwards 
into  the  provinces  of  Gaul.  These  three  tribes  were 
the  Suevif  a  name  of  puzzling  indefiniteness,  once  in- 
cluding almost  all  the  High-German  family  of  na- 
tions ;  the  Alans,  a  Tartar  horde  who  had  come 
into  Europe  at  the  same  time  as  the  Huns,  but  had 
pressed  further  westwards  than  their  kinsmen  ;  and 
the  Vandals. 

War  with  If  Stilicho  had  anything  whatever  to  do  with  the 
the  Franks.  jnvjtatjon  or  j^e  permission  given  to  these  barbarian 
hordes  to  enter  Gaul,  it  is  probable 1  that  he  did  it  in 
the  hope  of  finding  in  them  a  counterpoise  to  the 
Franks,  who  were  already  appearing  with  menacing 
strength  in  the  north-eastern  provinces  of  that 
country.  At  any  rate  the  Franks  are  the  only  enemy 
that  we  hear  of  as  attempting  to  bar  their  way.  A 
great  battle  was  fought,  in  which  Godigisclus,  the 
Vandal  king,  fell  with  20,000  of  his  followers,  and 
only  the  timely  intervention  of  Respendial,  King  of 
the  Alans,  saved  the  Vandals  from  utter  destruction. 
Three  Of  the  three  years  which  followed  (407-409)  we 

years  of     know  nothing,  but  must  imagine  the  three  con- 

ravage, 

407-  409.        1  As  suggested  by  Papencordt,  Geschichte  der  Vandalen,  p.  339. 


Gaiseric. 


207 


federated  nations  marching  up  and  down  in  Gaul  407 -4°9- 
during  that  period,  slaying  and  plundering  at  their 
will.  Then,  by  the  internal  discords  of  the  Empire, 
a  fresh  prospect  of  rapine  was  opened  out  before 
them.  The  British  usurper,  Constantine,  who  had 
penetrated  with  his  legions  into  Spain,  found  his 
precarious  throne  undermined  by  one  of  his  officers 
named  Gerontius,  who  proclaimed  his  son  Maximus 
Emperor.  While  usurper  and  sub-usurper  were 
quarrelling,  the  defence  of  the  Empire,  which  both 
pretended  to  maintain,  was  neglected.  The  passes 
of  the  Pyrenees,  which  had  hitherto  been  easily  and  4°9- 
faithfully  guarded,  were  left  open  to  the  enemy,  and 
the  three  confederate  nations  marching  through 
them,  found  the  rich  and  fruitful  peninsula  of  Spain, 
which  had  enjoyed  four  centuries  of  unbroken  peace, 
at  their  mercy.  The  day  of  the  month,  even  the  day 
of  the  week  of  this  terrible  invasion,  was  recorded  by 
the  Spanish  chroniclers,  faithfully  reproducing  the 
deep  dint  which  it  had  made  on  the  memories  of 
their  countrymen. 

'In  this  year'  (409)  'the  Alani  and  Wandali  and  The  Van- 
Suevi  entered  the  provinces  of  Spain,  on  the  28th  (jf/est-^fn 
of  September,  on  the  third  day  of  the  week  V    After  federates 
wandering  about  for  some  time,  enjoying  the  luxury  a^in  z8 

1  Idatius.  'Alani  et  Wandali  et  Suevi  Hispanias  ingressi :  alii  4°9- 
quarto  Kalendas  [28  Sept.],  alii  tertio  Idus  Octobris  [13  Oct.]  me- 
morant  die,  tertia  feria.'  Tillemont  points  out  that  the  28th  Septem- 
ber in  that  year  fell  on  a  Tuesday,  but  the  13th  October  on  a 
Wednesday.  Very  likely  the  fifteen  days'  difference  between  the 
two  calculations  denotes  the  interval  between  the  passage  of  the  van 
and  the  rear  of  the  invading  host. 


208 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[VII. 


409-428.  of  promiscuous  pillage,  they  divided  the  country  in 
some  rough  fashion  between  them,  the  Suevi  taking 
to  themselves  Gallicia  in  the  north-western  corner  of 
Spain,  the  Alans,  Lusitania  on  the  west  and  the 
province  of  Carthagena  on  the  east.  The  Vandals 
were  divided  into  two  branches,  the  smaller  of  whom, 
the  Asdingi,  dwelt  in  Gallicia  near  to  the  Suevi, 
while  the  powerful  clan  of  the  Silingi  occupied  the 
fertile  province  of  Baetica  in  the  south.  To  these 
413.  entered,  four  years  after,  the  Visigoths  under  Ataul- 
fus  :  and  by  these  four,  or  if  we  choose  so  to  con- 
sider them,  five  barbarian  nations,  as  well  as  by  the 
Roman  garrisons  in  the  strong  cities  which  remained 
like  islands  amid  the  barbarian  flood,  the  hapless  pro- 
vinces of  Spain  were  ruled  and  plundered.  Famine 
soon  followed  in  the  train  of  war.  Women  were 
accused  of  eating  their  own  children :  and  some 
Visigothic  soldiers  bought  of  some  Vandals  a  small 
mug-full  of  wheat  for  an  aureus  (=12  shillings). 
Internecine  \  need  not  trouble  you  with  the  details  of  the  wars 
Iween  'the  which  raged  in  Spain  from  413  to  428.  The  Visi- 
barbarians  goths  were  generally  in  alliance  with  the  Empire, 
4?i 3^428*'  an<^  f°u§nt  their  fellow-barbarians,  especially  the 
Vandals,  with  whom  they  had  a  long-standing  family 
quarrel,  with  a  ferocity  which  astonished  the  Ro- 
mans. First  the  Silingian  Vandals  in  Baetica  and 
then  the  Alans  sustained  crushing  defeats  at  their 
hands :  and  the  scanty  remnants  of  these  tribes 
joined  themselves  to  the  Asdingian  Vandals,  who 
under  their  king  Gunderic,  son  of  Godigisclus,  had 
now,  from  the  most  insignificant,  become  the  most 


VII.] 


Gaiseric. 


209 


powerful  nation  in  the  Peninsula,  especially  as  the  420-427. 
Visigoths  at  this  time  seem  to  have  withdrawn  most 
of  their  men  north  of  the  Pyrenees,  being  intent  on 
building  up  their  dominion  in  Southern  Gaul. 

In  420  the  Asdingian  Vandals,  with  their  de-  The  Van- 
pendents  the  Alans  marched  across  Spain  and  took  d2ndalu^i 
up  their  quarters  in  the  fertile  Baetica,  where  their  420. 
kinsmen  formerly  dwelt.    In  422,  Gunderic  won  a 
decisive  victory  over  Castinus,  the  Roman  Master 
of  the  Soldiery,  leaving  20,000  Imperial  soldiers 
dead  upon  the  field.    In  425  he  took  the  great  city 
of  Hispalis  (Seville),  and  fitted  out  a  naval  expedi- 
tion for  the  conquest  of  the  Balearic  Islands.  In 
427  Gunderic  died, — 'attacked  by  a  demon/  says  a  Death  of 
Spanish  chronicler,  'by  the  just  judgment  of  God,  ^^427" 
to  punish  him  for  having  stretched  forth  his  hand 
against  the  Church  of  Seville,5  and  he  was  succeeded 
by  Gaiseric  *,  the  illegitimate  son  of  his  father  Gode-  Accessio?i 

gisclus.  of  Gaiseric. 

Such  was  the  position  of  affairs  in  Spain  when  a  Gaiseric 

messenger  came  from  Bonifacius,  Count  of  Africa.  invited  h 

&  Count 
inviting  the  Vandals  to  cross  the  sea  and  wrest  that  Bonifacius 

province  from  the  Empire.  The  cause  of  this  strange  t0  enter 

r  11        ii        1  1  •  o        •  •  Africa, 

proposition  is  iully  told  us  by  one  historian  ,  writing  ^ 
a  hundred  years  after  the  event,  and  though  accurate 
and  trustworthy  for  his  own  times,  very  apt  to  con- 
fuse persons  and  places  of  which  he  had  no  personal 

1  Often  called  Genseric  by  modern  historians,  but  there  is  no  doubt 
that  Gaiseric  is  the  more  correct  form  of  the  name,  and  it  is  the  one 
now  generally  adopted  by  German  scholars. 

2  Procopius. 


P 


2IO 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[VII. 


427.  knowledge.  His  narrative  has  been  lately  subjected 
to  a  severe  analysis  by  a  great  master  of  historical 
criticism1,  who  has  shown  how  many  questionable 
elements  it  contains.  Still,  in  the  absence  of  all 
other  information,  it  holds  the  field,  and  I  will  there- 
fore, with  this  caution,  tell  the  story  in  the  words  of 
Procopius  himself. 

Procopius's     i  The  calamity  of  Africa  came  to  pass  in  this  fashion. 

story  of  the  There  were  two  Roman  generals,  Aetius  and  Boni- 

rtvalry 

between  facius,  both  able  men,  and  in  knowledge  of  the  art  of 
Aetius  and  war  second  to  none  of  their  time.     Between  these 

Bonifacius.  ...  ,  r  . 

men  jealousies  arose  as  to  the  government  of  the 
Empire :  but  so  great  were  their  magnanimity  and 
other  virtues  that  if  any  one  were  to  call  each  of 
them  the  last  of  the  Romans  he  would  not  be  far 
from  the  truth,  so  completely  had  all  the  glory  of 
Rome  become  merged  in  these  two  men.  One  of 
these  two  men,  Bonifacius,  Placidia  set  over  the 
whole  of  Africa,  hereby  offending  Aetius,  who,  how- 
ever, did  not  show  his  displeasure,  for  the  ill-feeling 
between  them  had  not  yet  produced  an  open  rupture, 
but  was  hidden  under  the  mask  of  friendship. 

'  Now  when  Bonifacius  had  departed  for  Africa, 
Aetius  began  to  calumniate  him  to  Placidia  as  a  man 
who  aspired  to  the  Imperial  dignity  and  would  wrest 
Africa  from  her  and  the  Emperor.  He  assured  her 
that  it  would  not  be  difficult  to  bring  this  matter 
to  the  test,  for  if  she  summoned  Bonifacius  to  Rome, 
he  would  not  come.  When  the  lady  heard  this,  she 
approved  and  followed  the  advice  of  Aetius.  The 

1  Professor  Freeman,  in  the  English  Historical  Review  for  July,  1887. 


VII.] 


Gaiseric. 


211 


latter,  however,  had  previously  written  secretly  to  427. 
Bonifacius  that  the  Emperor's  mother  was  laying 
snares  for  his  destruction,  and  as  a  token  of  the 
truth  of  his  assertion  he  told  him  that  he  would  find 
himself  without  cause  suddenly  recalled.  Hearken- 
ing to  this  warning  of  Aetius  but  keeping  a  profound 
silence  concerning  it,  when  the  messengers  arrived  to 
invite  him  to  the  Imperial  Court  he  declared  that  he 
would  not  obey  the  Emperor  or  his  mother  either. 
Placidia,  on  the  receipt  of  this  news,  looked  upon 
Aetius  as  a  most  faithful  servant  of  the  throne,  but 
regarded  Bonifacius  with  suspicion.  The  latter,  feel- 
ing himself  unable  to  cope  with  the  power  of  the 
Emperor,  yet  accounting  himself  a  doomed  man  if  he 
started  for  Rome,  began  to  consider  how  he  could 
attach  the  Vandals  to  his  cause,  who  had  obtained 
possession  of  the  neighbouring  province  of  Spain. 
Bonifacius,  then,  having  sent  to  Spain  certain  of  the 
most  influential  of  his  friends,  concluded  a  treaty  on 
terms  of  equality  with  both  the  sons  of  Godigisclus, 
to  the  effect  that  each  of  them  should  receive  a  third 
part  of  Africa,  and  that  if  any  one  of  the  three  were 
attacked  in  war,  his  danger  should  be  shared  by  the 
other  two.' 

So  far  Procopius.  It  will  be  seen  that  he  makes  War  be- 
Bonifacius  send  his  invitation  to  both  Kings  of  the  *™en  Vi, 

°  dais  and 

Vandals,  but  if  this  were  so,  certainly  before  the  Suevi. 
departure  of  the  host  from  Spain,  Gunderic  was 
dead  and  Gaiseric  was  sole  ruler  of  his  nation. 
While  he  was  engaged  in  his  preparations  for  de- 
parture, the  King  of  the  Suevi  made  a  devastating 

p  2 


212 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[vn. 


428-  inroad  on  the  northern  part  of  the  Vandal  pos- 
sessions. To  show  that  he  was  not  yet  to  be  thus 
contumeliously  ignored  even  on  Spanish  territory, 
Gaiseric  suspended  his  African  projects  for  a  while, 
turned  round  and  inflicted  on  the  Suevi  a  bloody 
defeat,  after  which  their  king  was  drowned  in  the 
Number-  waters  of  the  Gaudiana.  Then  resuming  his  plans  for 
lpf0p{,the  the  descent  upon  Africa,  he  collected  his  people 
(or  rather  his  two  peoples,  for  he  was  now  always 
saluted  as  King  of  the  Vandals  and  Alans)  upon  the 
sunny  Andalusian  shore.  Here  in  the  month  of 
May,  428  \  he  had  his  nation-army  numbered,  and 
found  all  the  males,  including  old  men  and  little 
children,  to  amount  to  80,000.  Another  computation, 
which  it  is  difficult  to  reconcile  with  this  unless  the 
limits  of  age  for  military  service  were  very  wide, 
makes  the  warriors  alone  amount  to  50,000  men. 
The  Van-  The  ships  which  Bonifacius,  Count  of  Africa, 
dpor\lTto'  suPP^e<^  fr°m  tne  great  port  of  Carthage,  co-operating 
Africa.  with  the  little  fleet  of  Gaiseric,  carried  this  great 
mass  of  persons,  certainly  not  fewer  than  160,000  in 
number,  to  the  African  coast  and  landed  them, 
probably  in  the  province  of  Numidia.  Thus  was  the 
dream  of  Alaric  realised  by  another  German  chieftain, 
and  thus  did  the  intrigues  and  counter-intrigues  of 
Roman  officials  enable  a  Teutonic  invader  to  strike 
at  Rome  in  her  most  vulnerable  point,  the  great 
grain-producing  provinces  of  Africa. 

1  The  date  commonly  given  is  429,  but  there  are  authorities  also 
for  427  and  428,  and  upon  the  whole  this  last  date  appears  the 
most  probable. 


VII.] 


Gaiseric. 


213 


Scarcely  had  the  Vandals  landed  on  the  African  428. 
coast  when  the  alliance  between  them  and  Bonifacius,  Bonifacius 
born  of  treachery  and  misunderstanding,  died  in  the  'hislrlason 
daylight  of  truth.  To  resume  the  narrative  of and  w 
Procopius.  '  All  those  at  Rome  who  were  well  ac-  CpJaczdtJ° 
quainted  with  Bonifacius,  reflecting  on  his  character 
and  the  extreme  improbability  of  his  being  so  far 
carried  away  by  the  desire  of  reigning,  were  filled 
with  wonder  at  what  had  taken  place.  Some  of 
these  persons,  by  order  of  Placidia,  proceeded  to 
Carthage,  conversed  with  Bonifacius,  saw  the  letters 
of  Aetius,  and  understanding  the  whole  intrigue 
returned  with  all  speed  to  Rome  and  explained  the 
position  in  which  Bonifacius  had  been  placed. 
Placidia,  filled  with  astonishment,  did  not  dare 
openly  to  blame  Aetius,  so  great  was  his  power  and 
so  necessary  his  help,  in  the  lamentable  state  into 
which  the  Empire  was  falling.  But  calling  for  the 
friends  of  Bonifacius,  she  explained  to  them  the 
secret  counsels  of  Aetius,  and  binding  them  to 
secrecy  by  an  oath  adjured  them,  if  it  were  possible, 
to  recall  him  to  the  love  of  his  country,  and  not  to 
allow  the  Roman  Empire  to  fall  under  the  yoke  of 
the  barbarians.  When  Bonifacius  understood  all 
these  things,  he  was  filled  with  repentance  for  his 
late  designs  and  for  the  treaty  which  he  had  made 
with  the  barbarians,  and  besought  them,  with  the 
lure  of  many  promises,  that  they  would  depart  from 
Africa.  But  as  the  Vandals  would  not  listen  to  his 
words,  but  rather  taunted  him  with  his  broken  faith 
towards  them,  he  was  forced  to  engage  in  battle  with 


214 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[VII. 


Siege  of  them,  and  being  defeated  withdrew  to  Hippo  Regius, 
Hippo,      a  very  strong  city  by  the  sea-coast  of  Numidia. 

June,  430  J  0      J  J 

to  July  'As  the  Vandals  after  a  long  time  could  neither 

take  Hippo  by  storm  nor  induce  it  to  surrender, 
and  were  moreover  themselves  beginning  to  suffer 
from  hunger,  they  broke  up  the  siege.  Not  long 
♦  after,  Bonifacius  and  the  Romans  under  his  command 
joined  forces  with  an  army  sent  from  Byzantium 
under  the  command  of  Aspar,  and  dared  to  try  the 
fortune  of  war  in  a  great  pitched  battle,  but  being 
much  inferior  to  the  enemy,  they  fled  whither  they 

432-  could,  and  Aspar  returned  to  his  own  land.  But 
Bonifacius  betook  himself  to  the  Court  of  Placidia, 
and  there  completely  purged  himself  of  the  suspicions 
which  had  been  entertained  of  him.' 

From  other  sources  we  learn  that  Placidia  not 
only  forgave  Bonifacius  but  received  him  into  high 
favour,  and  conferred  upon  him  the  dignity  of  Master 
of  the  Soldiery.  Apparently  he  would  have  sup- 
planted Aetius  in  his  position  of  Chief  Counsellor 
of  the  Empress  and  virtual  ruler  of  the  Empire,  but 
at  this  moment  Aetius  returned  with  his  army  from 
a  victorious  campaign  against  the  Franks,  and  joined 
battle  with  his  foe.  Aetius  was  defeated,  but  Boni- 
facius lost  his  life,  according  to  one  account,  in  single 
combat  with  his  rival,  and,  strange  to  say,  in  the  act 
of  dying,  adjured  his  wife  to  re-marry  with  Aetius  if 
the  death  of  his  wife  should  make  such  wedlock 
possible,  as  he  and  no  other  of  living  Romans  was 
worthy  to  be  the  successor  as  he  had  been  the 
conqueror  of  Bonifacius. 


VII.] 


Gaiseric. 


The  whole  story  of  the  rivalry  of  these  two  Strange 

t  i     •  -i  ir  character 

Imperial  generals  is  strange,  romantic,  almost  self-  0fthis 
contradictory.  Contemporary  annalists  scarcely  men-  story. 
tion  it ;  later  historians  tell  us  a  good  deal  which 
it  is  hardly  possible  that  they  could  have  known. 
We  should  be  disposed  to  send  it  back  into  the 
region  of  romance,  to  which  it  seems  properly  to 
belong,  but  for  this  one  clear  and  all-important  fact 
— that  the  Roman  governor  of  Africa  did  himself 
promote  the  passage  of  the  Vandals  into  his  pro- 
vince, and  only  when  it  was  too  late  and  the  irre- 
trievable mischief  was  done,  turned  against  them, 
and  by  vain  threats  and  vainer  promises,  sought  to 
persuade  them  to  leave  the  fruitful  land  into  which 
he  had  given  them  entrance. 


Thus,  then,  at  length  were  the  dwellers  by  the  Result  of 
Elbe  and  the  Oder  settled  on  the  southern  shore  of the  Va"dal 

migrations 

the  Mediterranean.  In  406  they  were  in  Pannonia, 
in  439  in  Carthage.  Thirty-three  years,  the  ordinary 
length  of  a  generation,  had  brought  them  from 
Austria  to  Tunis,  and  in  their  way  they  had  ravaged 
Languedoc  and  set  up  a  short-lived  kingdom  in 
Andalusia.  Remembering  always  that  it  was  not 
a  mere  army,  but  a  nation,  which  thus  roamed  over 
mountains  and  rivers  and  changed  its  place  of  abode 
from  continent  to  continent,  we  feel  that  the  period 
of  history  of  which  we  are  now  treating  is  indeed 
well  named  by  the  Germans  Volker-wanderung, 
'  the  migration  of  the  nations.* 


2l6 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[VII. 


Death  of  The  siege  of  Hippo  Regius  (Bona),  which  has 
St.Augtis-  Deen  already  alluded  to  by  Procopius,  lasted  for 

tine  during  ,         ,  •  ,     ,T  T  i 

the  siege     a  little  more  than  thirteen  months  (J  une  430  to  J  uly 

of  Hippo,    431),  and  was,  as  has  been  already  said,  one  of  the 

28  Aug.  failures  of  the  Vandals.    It  was  memorable  in 

43°- 

the  history  of  the  Church,  because  the  Bishop  of 
Hippo — the  greatest  of  all  the  bishops  of  the  African 
Church — St.  Augustine,  was  present  within  the  city 
at  its  commencement,  and  died  in  the  third  month  of 
the  blockade.  His  biographer,  Possidius,  Bishop  of 
Calama,  was  with  him  at  the  end ;  and  from  his 
hand  we  have  an  interesting  picture  of  the  venerable 
old  man's  last  days,  sitting,  as  he  did,  surrounded  by 
bishops  from  the  whole  province  of  Africa,  who  had 
seen  their  cities  burned,  their  churches  levelled 
with  the  ground,  the  fruit-trees  of  the  agriculturists 
torn  up  by  the  roots.  It  was  the  fury  of  this  first 
onslaught,  and  the  especial  delight  taken  by  the 
heretical  barbarians  in  the  destruction  of  churches, 
which  caused  their  name  to  become  a  synonym 
for  the  demolishers  of  beautiful  buildings.  Practi- 
cally, when  we  speak  of  Vandalism,  we  now  generally 
think  of  some  brutal  outrage  perpetrated  on  a  temple 
or  a  statue  ;  and  this  in  the  fifth  century  would  be 
more  probably  the  work  of  fanatic  monk  than  of 
Vandal  barbarian.  But  the  deeds  of  the  followers 
of  Gaiseric  during  the  first  fury  of  their  conquest,  and 
afterwards,  were  sufficiently  brutal  to  excuse  the 
opprobrium  which  the  usage  of  fourteen  centuries 
has  linked  indissolubly  with  their  name. 

After  seven  years  of  desolating  warfare,  peace  was 


1  Vandal- 
ism' 


VII.] 


Gaiseric. 


concluded  between  Gaiseric  and  the  Empire.  Aetius  Temporary 
no  doubt  recognised  that  the  fatal  work  of  Boni-^'w*/A 

a  the  Em- 

facius  could  not  be  undone,  nor  the  50,000  Vandal  pire,  n 
and  Alan  warriors  (reinforced  probably  by  many Feb-  435- 
Moorish  nomads  and  ruined  Roman  Provincials) 
be  forced  to  relinquish  their  prey.  On  his  part 
Gaiseric  had  had  enough  of  plundering ;  he  wished 
now  to  occupy  and  to  rule,  and  he  meant  to  make 
the  Romans  pay  a  costly  price  for  the  peace  which 
he  was  willing  to  concede  to  them.  The  strong 
city  of  Hippo,  which  he  had  failed  to  conquer  by 
force  of  arms,  became  his  as  the  result  of  negotiation. 
He  had  Numidia  and  the  larger  part  of  the  African 
territory  secured  to  him  as  his  lawful  possession, 
perhaps  on  the  promised  payment  of  a  yearly 
tribute 1  to  the  Emperor,  and  he  had  to  promise 
to  leave  unmolested  Carthage,  the  capital  of  the 
Roman  Diocese  and  that  part  of  the  Province  which 
immediately  adjoined  it,  a  rich  and  fertile  district 
certainly,  and  the  gem  of  the  whole  dominion. 
His  son  Huneric  was  sent  to  Rome  as  a  hostage  for 
the  fulfilment  of  this  condition. 

The  peace  seemed  like  a  confession  of  something  Gaiseric 
like  failure  on  the  part  of  the  Vandal  conqueror.  Pounces  on 
But  he  had  only  '  recoiled  in  order  to  make  a  bolder  I9  0ct*  ' 
spring/    He  waited  his  time  ;  on  some  pretence  or  439- 
other  he  obtained  the  return  of  his  hostage-son,  and 
then,  while  Aetius  was  busy  warring  with  the  Visi- 
goths  in   Gaul,  and  Attila   from   his  Hungarian 
village  was  beginning  to  worry  Placidia  with  his 
1  Procopius  asserts  this. 


2l8 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[VII. 


439-  embassies  and  his  armaments,  suddenly,  on  the  19th 
of  October,  439,  Gaiseric  entered  Carthage  and 
made  all  the  vast  wealth  of  the  African  capital  his 
own.  Torture  was  freely  used  to  compel  some 
of  the  citizens  to  yield  up  to  him  their  hidden 
stores. 

Appear-        The  Vandal  king  had  now  reached,  apparently, 


aucc 


a)id 


.^ythe  summit  of  his  ambition.  Lord  of  the  Roman 
Gaiseric.  Provinces  of  Africa  and  of  the  great  city  of  Carthage, 
he  felt  himself  indeed  a  king ;  and  whatever  title  he 
may  have  borne  before,  he  dated  his  reign — a  reign 
which  lasted  thirty-seven  years — from  this  conquest. 
Like  Ataulfus,  like  Attila  (one  might  add,  like 
Napoleon  and  like  Wellington),  he  was  somewhat 
under  the  usual  size,  and  he  had  a  limp  in  his  gait 
owing  to  a  fall  from  his  horse.  He  was,  by  the  con- 
senting testimony  of  all  contemporary  historians,  a 
man  of  great  ability,  admirably  preparing  his  means 
to  compass  the  desired  ends,  simple  in  his  habits,  of 
few  words,  patient,  and  tenacious  of  purpose  ;  but  on 
the  other  hand,  sullen  in  his  wrath,  covetous,  always 
stirring  up  strife  and  vexing  the  nations,  and 
absolutely  ruthless  towards  all  who  crossed  his 
path1.  In  Alaric,  notwithstanding  some  outbursts  of 
barbaric  rage,  there  was  much  that  was  chivalrous 
and  noble.  Even  the  dark  soul  of  Attila  was  ir- 
radiated with  fitful  gleams  of  generosity  and  compas- 
sion. But  in  Gaiseric  I  do  not  think  we  can  discern 
a  single  lineament  of  nobleness.  All  is  hard,  cruel, 
vulgar  in  his  remorseless  soul.    Alas  that  we  must 

1  This  character  is  chiefly  taken  from  Jordanes,  cap.  33. 


VII.] 


Gaiseric. 


219 


add;  all  is  also  successful  in  his  life.  This  cruel  and 
greedy,  but  supremely  able  barbarian  succeeded 
where  the  nobler  Alaric  and  the  gentler  Ataulfus 
had  failed. 

His  magnificent  power  of  adapting  means  to  ends  His  man- 
was  well  displayed  in  the  change  which  he  made  in  ^^^^ 
the  habits  of  his  nation  after  he  had  become  master  tical  expe- 
of  Carthage.  The  Vandals,  who  had  dwelt  so  long  on  dltl01u- 
the  skirts  of  the  Riesengebirge,  in  the  highlands 
of  Austria,  or  in  the  plains  of  Hungary,  were  essen- 
tially an  inland  people,  who  only  dabbled  a  little  in 
seamanship,  when  they  reached  the  Andalusian 
shore.  But  now  that  the  fleets,  the  arsenal,  the 
docks  of  Carthage  were  all  their  own,  now  that 
its  harbour — one  of  the  finest  in  the  Old  World — 
reflected  everywhere  the  Vandal  flag,  they  became 
under  Gaiseric's  guidance  the  first  naval  power  on 
the  Mediterranean,  and  he,  by  a  singular  anticipa- 
tion of  the  history  of  the  Barbary  States  in  later 
days,  made  himself  the  great  Buccaneer-King. 
With  every  returning  spring  his  long  ships  of  war 
were  made  ready  in  the  harbour.  Sometimes  he 
ravaged  Sicily,  sometimes  the  southern  coasts  of 
Italy,  leading  the  inhabitants  of  one  city  into  cap- 
tivity, throwing  down  the  walls  of  another,  wasting 
the  whole  country  with  his  wide-reaching  raids.  Then 
when  the  very  poverty  of  these  lands  frighted  him 
away  from  their  devastated  shores,  he  turned  to  the 
Eastern  Empire.  Illyricum,  Peloponnesus,  the  islands 
of  the  Ionian  and  Aegean  seas,  all  that  bore  the  name 
of  Hellas,  bewailed  the  visits  of  Gaiseric.    Then  to 


220 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[VII. 


Italy  and  Sicily  again,  to  try  if  there  were  any  nook 
which  had  hitherto  escaped  his  visitations.  At 
length  the  work  became  almost  monotonous,  and 
the  choice  of  a  victim  hard.  Once  when  the  fleet 
had  weighed  anchor  and  was  sailing  forth  from  the 
broad  harbour  of  Carthage,  the  helmsman  turned  to 
the  king  and  asked  for  what  port  he  should  steer. 
'  For  the  men  with  whom  God  is  angry/  answered 
the  Vandal  king,  and  left  the  winds  and  the  waters 
to  settle  the  question  who  were  the  proper  objects  of 
the  wrath  of  Heaven. 

The  land-settlement  of  the  Vandals  and  the  order 
of  succession  to  the  Vandal  throne  were  two  subjects 
to  which  Gaiseric's  legislative  energies  were  especially 
directed,  (i)  The  rich  Province  in  which  Carthage 
was  situated,  called  Zeugitana,  or  the  Proconsular 
Province,  the  last  of  all  the  acquisitions  of  the 
Vandals,  was  portioned  out  among  the  warriors  of 
the  nation,  who  received  these  estates  as  an  in- 
heritance to  be  transmitted  to  their  children,  and 
who  paid  no  taxes  of  any  kind  for  them.  In  the 
other  Provinces,  far  larger  in  extent  but  not  nearly 
so  fertile  in  quality,  lay  the  vast  domains  of  Gaiseric 
and  his  sons,  consisting  of  estates  forcibly  taken 
away  from  their  Roman  owners,  often  men  of  culture 
and  noble  birth,  who  were  in  some  cases  compelled 
to  cultivate  as  slaves  the  lands  of  which  the  invader 
had  despoiled  them.  The  poor  and  barren  lands 
were  for  the  most  part  left  to  their  former  owners, 
but  so  burdened  with  taxes  and  obligations  of  service 
that  the  unhappy  possessors  could  barely  make  a 


VII.] 


Gaiseric. 


221 


livelihood  out  of  them.  'Many  of  these  unhappy 
possessors  tried  to  flee,  but  were  arrested  and 
executed,  sundry  grievous  charges  being  brought 
against  them,  especially  the  one  unforgivable  sin  of 
concealing  treasure  from  Gaiseric.  'Thus/  as  the 
historian 1  says,  '  did  the  Provincials  of  Africa  fall 
into  every  kind  of  misery.' 

(2)  As  for  the  succession  to  the  throne,  in  order  Law  of 
to  avert  the  rivalries  and  civil  wars  which  often  succesnon 

to  the 

resulted  from  the  elective  character  of  Teutonic  throne. 
royalty,  and  at  the  same  time  to  prevent  the  crown 
from  being  worn  by  a  fatuous  boy  like  Honorius  or 
Valentinian,  he  ordained  that  the  oldest  living  male 
among  his  descendants  should,  on  the  death  of  each 
reigning  monarch,  ascend  the  Vandal  throne.  The 
law  was  like  that  which  has  regulated  the  succession 
of  the  Ottoman  Sultans  and  the  Egyptian  Pashas. 
It  worked  smoothly  for  near  sixty  years  after  the 
death  of  Gaiseric,  who  was  succeeded  by  his  eldest 
son  Huneric,  he  by  his  two  nephews,  Gunthamund 
and  Thrasamund,  and  the  latter  of  these  by  his 
cousin  Hilderic,  the  son  of  Huneric.  Then  dissen- 
sions broke  out :  Hilderic  was  dethroned  and  finally 
put  to  death  by  his  cousin  Gelimer,  but  religious 
differences — for  Gelimer  was  an  Arian  and  Hilderic 
a  Catholic — were  the  chief  cause  of  these  disputes, 
for  which  I  am  not  sure  that  we  can  fairly  blame  the 
Vandal  law  of  succession. 

In  this  allusion  to  religious  differences  I  have  Persecu- 
touched  upon  that  which  was  the  distinguishing  and  ^^{Jf/ 

1  Procopius. 


222 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[VII. 


the  shameful  characteristic  of  the  Vandal  kingdom, 
especially  under  Gaiseric  and  his  son  ;  I  mean,  their 
brutal  persecution  of  the  Catholics.  In  their  pro- 
fession of  Arianism  the  Vandals,  as  we  have  seen, 
only  followed  the  example  of  all  the  other  barbarian 
nations  who  had  embraced  Christianity  in  any  form. 
Naturally  Attila,  who  worshipped  a  naked  sword, 
while  hating  all  priests  and  coveting  their  costly  Com- 
munion-plate, was  under  no  temptation  to  treat  the 
orthodox  believers  in  the  Homoousion  worse  than  the 
Arian  believers  in  the  Homoiousion  (if  any  such  there 
yet  remained),  but  would  slay  both  with  ferocious  im- 
partiality. Naturally,  too,  the  still  heathen  ancestors 
of  Clovis  robbed  and  murdered  the  Catholic  bishops 
of  Belgic  Gaul  simply  as  rich  and  civilised  men, 
without  any  special  antipathy  to  them  on  account  of 
their  Catholicism.  With  the  Visigoths,  Suevi,  and 
Burgundians  the  case  was  different.  They  were 
parties  to  the  long  Arian  lawsuit,  and  were  disposed 
to  depress,  and  sometimes  to  harass,  the  Athanasian 
litigants  on  the  other  side,  but  they  did  not 
systematically  persecute,  and  there  are  few  if  any 
instances  of  Catholics  actually  put  to  death  by 
them  for  their  faith. 

Gaiseric,  however,  seems  to  have  hugged  his 
Arian  belief  with  the  fanatical  love  of  a  convert,  and 
to  have  hated  the  Nicene  Confession  with  the  bitter 
hatred  of  an  apostate.    It  was  indeed  reported  1  in 

1  Idatius  mentions  this  report :  '  Gaisericus  qui,  ut  aliquomm 
relatio  habet,  effectus  apostata  de  fide  Catholica,  in  Arianam  dictus 
est  transisse  perfidiam.' 


VIT.] 


Gaiseric. 


223 


Spain  that  such  was  the  very  truth,  that  he  had 
been  once  a  Catholic  and  had  1  apostatised  to  the 
Arian  infidelity ' :  but  it  is  difficult  to  understand 
how  the  son  of  King  Godigisclus  can  have  been 
brought  up  in  the  Athanasian  faith,  unless  his 
illegitimate  birth  permitted  him  to  be  trained  by 
his  mother,  probably  a  Gaulish  concubine  of  the 
king,  in  the  despised  faith  of  the  Roman  Pro- 
vincials. 

Whatever  the  cause  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 
Gaiseric  detested  the  Catholic  faith,  the  faith  of  the 
vast  majority  of  his  new  subjects,  and  showed  that 
detestation  by  acts  of  savage  cruelty.  The  churches 
were  not  merely  plundered — that  the  barbarian 
hunger  for  gold  would  sufficiently  account  for — but 
wantonly  burned :  and  insult  was  sometimes  added 
to  rapine,  as  when  the  beautiful  altar-cloths  were  cut 
up  and  made  into  shirts  and  drawers  for  the  grooms  of 
a  barbarian  officer.  In  the  regions  which  paid  tribute 
to  the  Palace  the  bishops  were  accused  of  stirring 
up  the  people  to  revolt,  and  of  likening  the  king  to 
Pharaoh,  Holofernes,  and  Nebuchadnezzar :  and  a 
number  of  them  were  sent  into  exile.  The  Bishop  of 
Carthage,  with  several  of  his  clergy,  was  sent  to  sea 
in  a  crazy  ship,  which  it  was  hoped  would  founder  on 
the  voyage,  but  arrived  safe  but  penniless  on  the 
shores  of  Campania.  The  Metropolitan  Church  of 
Carthage  was  forbidden  to  elect  any  successor  to  the 
exile,  and  seems  to  have  remained  for  twenty  years 
or  more  '  widowed  of  its  bishop.*  The  same  measure 
was  meted  out  to  a  great  number  of  African  Churches, 


224  Dynasty  of  Theodosius.  [vrf. 

evidently  with  the  intention  of  breaking  down  their 
episcopal  organisation  for  ever. 

In  his  own  palace  Gaiseric  seemed  as  if  he  could 
not  endure  the  presence  of  an  adherent  of  the  rival 
creed.  Sebastian,  the  son-in-law  of  Bonifacius, 
though  a  man  who  was  on  other  grounds  acceptable 
at  Court  and  influential  with  the  king,  was  put 
to  death  because  he  refused  to  change  his  religion. 
Count  Armogast,  for  the  same  refusal,  was  stretched 
upon  the  rack,  hung  head  downwards  from  the 
ceiling  by  one  foot,  and  at  last  sent  to  do  the  work 
of  a  ditcher  and  a  shepherd  in  the  fields,  where  he 
soon  died  of  his  hardships. 

These  and  many  similar  stories  which  are  told  us 
by  Victor  Vitensis,  show  the  intense  and  bitter  ani- 
mosity of  the  great  Vandal  against  all  who  refused 
to  accept  what  the  ecclesiastical  historians  call  'the 
Arian  infidelity.'  At  the  same  time  they  fail  to  bring 
before  us  any  well-concerted  and  systematic  scheme 
of  persecution,  which  could  by  possibility  have  rooted 
out  the  Catholic  faith  from  Africa.  Gaiseric  was 
evidently  no  Diocletian,  with  sad  thoroughness  under- 
taking to  eradicate  a  hostile  faith  in  order  to  fulfil  his 
duty  to  the  State.  Nor  was  he  a  Louis  XIV,  organis- 
ing dragonnades  and  revoking  edicts  of  toleration  in 
order  that  he  might  keep  his  mistresses  and  yet  save 
his  soul.  He  was  essentially  a  barbarian,  though 
a  clever  one,  with  all  that  intolerance  of  opposition 
which  is  shown  not  by  barbarians  only  when 

'  Dressed  in  a  little  brief  authority.' 

He  could  not  bear  that  any  of  those  about  him  should 


VII.] 


Gaiseric. 


225 


dare  to  belong  to  any  other  than  'the  King's  religion/ 
and  he  tortured,  degraded,  banished,  at  last  some- 
times even  killed,  in  order  to  punish  those  who 
differed  from  him  for  their  independence. 

Such  was  the  character  and  such  the  past  career 
of  the  founder  of  the  great  Buccaneer  State.  We 
have  now  to  glance  at  the  course  of  events  which,  in 
the  year  455,  brought  him  across  the  sea  to  Rome. 

Valentinian  III,  in  the  year  437,  when  he  had  Family  re- 

reached  the  age  of  eighteen,  went  on  a  visit  of  state  l<^twns  °f 

0  &  '  Valenti- 

no his  cousin,  Theodosius  II,  at  Constantinople,  and  man  III. 

returned  bringing  with  him  that  cousin's  daughter  as 
a  bride.  She  bore  the  name  which,  with  slight 
modifications,  had  been  borne  by  two  previous 
generations  of  Imperial  ladies  in  the  palace  at  Con- 
stantinople, Eudoxia  or  Eudocia.  Of  this  marriage 
there  was  no  male  issue,  but  two  daughters  were 
born  to  the  Imperial  pair,  Eudoxia  and  Placidia. 

On  the  death  of  Attila  (453)  the  thought,  the  base  His 
thought,  began  to  insinuate  itself  into  the  mind  0{Jealousy  °1 
Valentinian  that  he  had  now  less  need  of  the  services 
of  the  great  minister,  Aetius.  Men  called  that 
minister  'the  great  safeguard  of  the  Western 
Commonwealth  and  the  terror  of  Attila1.'  His 
praises  were  sung  with  wearisome  repetition,  and 
the  very  presence  of  the  strenuous,  care-worn  warrior 
was  an  oppression  and  a  rebuke  to  the  frivolous 
Emperor  who  'reigned  but  did  not  govern.'  The 
growing  dislike,  now  that  the  wise  Placidia  was  laid 
in  the  grave,  could  be  fostered  at  their  pleasure  by 

1  Marcellinus  Comes,  s.  a.  454. 

Q 


226 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[VII. 


454-  the  mischief-making  lacqueys  of  the  palace,  and  one 
of  these,  the  eunuch  Heraclius,  for  ever  seeming  to 
anticipate  the  Emperor's  wishes,  and  really  making 
him  the  tool  of  his  own  base  designs,  had  begun  to 
talk  of  possible  means  of  freeing  Valentinian  from 
the  yoke  of  his  minister  and  making  him  master  in 
his  own  house.  Hints  of  treachery  reached  the  ears 
of  Aetius,  and  to  secure  himself  he  pressed  the 
Emperor  to  exchange  with  him  solemn  oaths  of 
mutual  faith.  At  the  same  time  a  scheme  which  had 
probably  been  for  some  time  talked  of,  and  which 
seemed  to  promise  the  undisturbed  succession  to  the 
throne  of  a  hero's  son,  received  its  final  ratification. 
Valentinian  promised  to  give  one  of  his  daughters  in 
marriage  to  Gaudentius  \  the  son  of  Aetius. 

Valentini-     Such  was  the  state  of  affairs,  a  hollow  crust  of 

an  murders  reconciliation  and  plighted  vows  over  the  red-hot 
Aetius.  . 

lava  of  hatred  and  suspicion,  when  one  day  Aetius 

entered  the  palace  and  had  an  interview  with  the 

Emperor.    He  spoke  of  the  covenant  entered  into 

between  them :  he  perhaps  urged  the  completion  of 

the  marriage  at  once,  and  hinted  that  his  master  was 

seeking  to  evade   the  fulfilment   of  his  promise. 

Valentinian  was,  or  feigned  to  be,  enraged  against 

his   importunate  petitioner.     He   struck  Aetius  a 

blow :  the  swords  of  the  surrounding  courtiers,  we 

are  told,  'cruelly  finished  the  work/    The  last  of  the 

Romans  was  lying  dead  at  the  feet  of  one  of  the 

meanest  of  the  Caesars.    Along  with  Aetius  fell  one 

of  his  friends,  bearer  of  a  name  destined  to  European 

1  Or  possibly  Carpilio.    We  are  not  quite  sure  of  the  name. 


VII.] 


Gaiseric. 


celebrity, — Boetius,  an  ancestor  of  the  author  of  the  454-455- 
'  Consolation  of  Philosophy.' 

Soon  after  the  foul  deed  had  been  done  Valentinian 
asked  a  Roman  nobleman  if  he  had  done  well  in 
slaying  Aetius.  '  Well  done,  or  ill  done,  most  noble 
Augustus,  I  am  hardly  able  to  decide.  But  I  know 
one  thing,  that  you  have  chopped  off  your  right  hand 
with  your  left.' 

The  death  of  Aetius,  which  probably  occurred  Vengeance 

towards  the  end  of  4S4,  remained  not  Ions:  unavenged.  on  Valen~ 

_  &  &  tinian. 

Valentinian,  who  with  all  his  many  vices  does  not 
appear  to  have  been  a  coward,  allowed  the  friends 
and  retainers  of  the  murdered  man  to  approach  him 
without  hindrance.  He  supposed  that  what  his 
flatterers  told  him  was  true,  and  that  the  deed  of  the 
Emperor  of  Rome  would  be  accepted  as  if  it  were 
the  decree  of  heaven  by  his  adoring  subjects.  Little 
did  he  know  the  longing  for  revenge  which  filled  the 
hearts  of  the  barbarian  guardsmen  of  Aetius,  who, 
like  the  Comitatus  of  a  German  chief,  deemed  them- 
selves for  ever  disgraced  by  the  unrequited  murder 
of  their  lord.  On  the  16th  of  March,  455,  Valentinian 
rode  forth  from  the  City  to  a  place  called  '  the  Two 
Laurels,'  to  watch  some  contest  (perhaps  a  wrestling 
match)  which  was  going  forward.  While  he  was 
intent  on  the  spectacle  two  henchmen  of  Aetius, 
named  Optila  and  Thraustila  1 — their  names  reveal 
their  barbarian  origin — approached  and  'stabbed 
him  with  unexpected  blows2.'     The  eunuch  He- 

1  Or  Accila  and  Trasila  (Continuator  Prosperi).   Trasila  is  here 
said  to  have  been  a  son-in-law  of  Aetius. 

2  'Insperatis  et  inopinatis  ictibus  confoderunt.' 

Q  2 


228 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[VII. 


raclius,  who  had  been  his  accomplice  in  the  murder 
of  Aetius,  was  slain  at  the  same  time. 

With  the  death  of  Valentinian  the  dynasty  of 
Theodosius  came  to  an  end,  his  cousin  Pulcheria, 
the  Augusta  at  Constantinople,  having  died  two  years 
before  (453).  The  person  who  was  chosen  to  succeed 
him  was  Maximus,  an  elderly  Senator,  a  man  who  had 
been  twice  Consul,  and  had  filled  various  offices  of 
the  State  with  credit  and  distinction.  The  hopes 
which  had  been  formed  of  a  wise  and  honourable 
administration  of  the  affairs  of  the  Republic  by  the 
new  Emperor  were,  however,  soon  disappointed. 
Maximus  not  only  left  the  murder  of  his  predecessor 
unavenged  :  he  even  seemed  ostentatiously  to  court 
the  society  of  the  murderers,  thus  definitely  enrolling 
himself  as  a  partisan  of  the  family  of  Aetius  and  an 
antagonist  of  the  probably  still  numerous  adherents 
of  the  Theodosian  house.  He  carried  this  partisan- 
ship to  such  lengths  as  to  suggest  to  the  minds  of 
his  subjects  that  he  had  himself  been  privy  to  the 
death  of  his  predecessor.  The  suspicion  was 
probably  unfounded,  but  the  mere  fact  that  it  was 
widely  entertained  must  have  been  fatal  to  the  moral 
ascendency  of  the  new  Emperor.  Moreover  he  com- 
pelled the  beautiful  widow  of  Valentinian,  who  was 
still  truly  mourning  her  unworthy  husband,  to  accept 
his  hand  in  marriage,  and  proposed  to  marry  his  son 
Palladius  to  her  daughter,  Placidia.  If  he  hoped 
thus  to  consolidate  his  dynasty  by  a  double  union 
with  the  family  of  his  predecessor,  he  was  bitterly  dis- 
appointed.   Eudoxia  was  wounded  in  her  affections 


VII.] 


Gaiseric. 


229 


by  the  indecent  haste  with  which  she  had"  been  com-  455* 
pelled  to  accept  this  elderly  and  commonplace  civil 
servant  instead  of  the  brilliant,  if  worthless,  husband 
of  her  youth.  She  was  wounded  in  her  pride  by  a 
marriage,  or  rather  by  two  marriages,  deemed  by 
her  to  be  beneath  the  dignity  of  that  great  Theodosian 
house  to  which  she  belonged  by  a  double  title,  and 
which  had  now  for  three  quarters  of  a  century  been, 
in  the  flattering  dialect  of  the  Court,  '  domus  divina.' 

Like  her  sister-in-law  Honoria,  in  her  rage  and  Eudoxia 
despair  she  looked  to  the  barbarian  for  aid.    She  m?°kes*h* 

r  aid  qj  Gai- 

found  means  to  send  a  messenger  to  Gaiseric,  in-  seric. 
viting  him  to  attack  Rome  and  deliver  her  from 
shameful  bondage.  The  messenger  found  the  Vandal 
king  in  no  unwilling  mood.  Most  likely  he  had 
often  discussed  with  himself  the  probabilities  of 
success  or  failure  in  the  most  brilliant  enterprise 
that  ambition  and  avarice  could  suggest  to  a  Teutonic 
warrior :  and  now  all  doubts  were  removed  by  the 
knowledge  that  Rome's  powers  of  resistance,  feeble 
r.  the  best,  would  be  paralysed  by  internal  dis- 
sensions. His  ships  were  no  doubt  all  equipped  in 
readiness  for  his  usual  spring-tour  of  desolation  :  he 
had  but  to  give  to  the  waiting  pilot  the  word  of 
command,  '  for  Rome/ 

The  Vandal  fleet  reached  the  mouth  of  the  Tiber  Gaiseric 
in  the  early  days  of  June  (455) ;  but  already,  three  ^l^f 
days  before  their  arrival,  the  reign  of  Maximus,  June,  455. 
which  lasted  only  about  ten  or  eleven  weeks,  had 
come  to  an  end.    The  rumour  of  the  impending 
invasion,  fears  of  domestic  treachery,  the  unconcealed 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius.        .  [vn. 


455.  scorn  and  hatred  of  Eudoxia,  quite  unnerved  the 
elderly  Emperor,  who,  after  publishing  a  proclamation 
granting  liberty  to  leave  the  City  to  all  who  desired 
to  do  so,  himself  claimed  the  permission  which  he 
had  accorded  to  his  subjects  and  stole  away  from  the 
palace.  As  soon  as  his  departure  was  discovered 
an  insurrection  broke  out.  The  servants  of  the 
palace,  who  were  all  on  Eudoxia's  side,  followed  and 
Flight  and  overtook  the  fugitive.  According  to  the  ghastly 
^Afavimus  Precedent  set  in  the  case  of  Rufinus,  they  tore  him 
limb  from  limb,  dragged  the  pieces  of  his  body 
through  the  streets  of  Rome  and  hurled  them  con- 
temptuously into  the  Tiber.  Already,  in  the  general 
ruin  of  society,  the  men  who  called  themselves 
Romans  were  showing  themselves  even  more  bar- 
barous than  the  barbarians. 
Surrender  A  city  thus  left  without  a  ruler,  and  probably 
of  the  City,  ^jyj^g^  against  itself,  (the  enemies  and  the  friends  of 
the  late  Theodosian  dynasty  regarding  one  another 
with  hatred  and  fear,)  could  offer  no  effectual  re- 
sistance, and  appears  to  have  offered  no  resistance  at 
all,  to  the  mighty  Vandal.  Once  more  the  expedient 
of  Papal  intercession  was  resorted  to,  but  this  time 
with  only  partial  success.  When  Pope  Leo  with  his 
clergy  met  Gaiseric  outside  the  Porta  Portuensis  the 
conqueror  agreed — no  doubt  on  condition  that  his 
entry  should  be  unopposed — to  spare  the  lives  of  the 
inhabitants,  to  set  fire  neither  to  church,  palace,  nor 
private  dwelling,  and  to  abstain  from  the  use  of 
torture  for  the  discovery  of  hidden  wealth.  These 
conditions  being  observed,  there  was  to  be  no  limit 


VII.] 


Gaiseric. 


231 


to  the  Vandal  capacities  for  spoliation.  '  For  four-  455- 
teen  days,'  says  an  annalist1,  'with  secure  and  plm 
unhindered  investigation,  Rome  was  stripped  of  all  °J ^ 
her  wealth/  Temple  and  Christian  church  were 
impartially  plundered.  Half  of  the  gilded  roof  of 
the  Temple  of  Capitolian  Jove,  the  Communion-plate 
of  all  the  great  basilicas,  statues  from  forum  and 
hippodrome  and  villa,  the  crown  and  jewelled 
ornaments  of  Theodosius  and  his  posterity,  even  the 
seven-branched  candlestick  and  the  table  of  the 
shew-bread  which  Titus  had  brought  from  ruined 
Jerusalem,  these  and  endless  other  treasures  were 
borne  during  those  fourteen  days  of  leisurely  spolia- 
tion along  the  Via  Portuensis  and  stowed  away  in  the 
capacious  holds  of  the  Vandal  galleys 2.  The  vessel 
which  bore  the  statues  and  other  treasures  of  art 
most  unfortunately  foundered  on  the  voyage.  The 
spoils  of  the  Jewish  temple  reached  their  destination 
in  safety,  and  after  reposing  in  the  recesses  of  the 
Vandal  palace  at  Carthage  for  seventy-nine  years 
were  carried  to  Constantinople  to  grace  the  triumph 
of  Belisarius :  but  the  Roman  Emperor  Justinian, 
fearing  that  these  sacred  treasures  which  had  already 
witnessed  the  sack  of  three  great  cities,  Jerusalem, 

1  Prosper. 

2  We  are  not  distinctly  told  that  the  fleet  of  Gaiseric  lay  at 
anchor  off  Portus,  but  this  is  rather  more  probable  than  that  they 
were  at  Ostia.  It  is  quite  possible,  however,  that  the  fleet  may  have 
been  divided  between  the  two  ports  when  it  was  plain  that  there 
was  to  be  no  opposition.  This  would  enable  the  Vandals  to  load 
much  more  cargo  during  the  fourteen  days,  which  on  any  hypothesis 
seems  rather  a  short  time  for  the  immense  amount  of  business 
transacted  in  them. 


232 


Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[VII. 


455.         Rome,  and  Carthage,  bringing  ill  fortune  with  them 
like  the  Ark  of  God  to  the  cities  of  the  Philistines, 
might  also  witness  the  fall  of  Constantinople,  sent 
them  back  to  their  original  home  on  Mount  Moriah, 
where  apparently  they  must  still  have  been  stored 
up  when  Omar,  at  the  head  of  his  true  believers, 
stormed  the  Holy  City. 
Gaiserk        Gaiseric,  having  fully  accomplished  his  purpose, 
7 Africa  *°  not  con(luest  but  plunder,  returned  to  Carthage, 
laying  waste  on  his  way  the  shores  of  Campania  and 
Captivity   ruining  the  cities  of  Capua  and  Nola.    The  Empress 
of  Eudoxia  £U(]oxja  ancj  ner  two  daughters  were  transported  to 

and  her  0  r 

daughters.  Carthage.  The  elder  daughter,  Eudoxia,  was  married 
to  Gaiseric's  eldest  son,  Huneric, — a  most  miserable 
union,  since  she  was  a  devoted  Catholic  and  her 
husband  a  bitter  Arian.  In  472,  after  twenty-seven 
years  of  wedlock,  she  escaped  from  the  hated  land  to 
Jerusalem,  and  there  died,  after  a  few  months  spent 
in  religious  seclusion,  at  the  Tomb  of  the  Saviour. 
The  Empress  Eudoxia  and  her  other  daughter, 
Placidia,  were  sent  to  Constantinople  in  462,  after 
seven  years'  captivity,  in  consideration  of  a  large 
ransom  paid  by  the  Emperor  Leo,  who,  though 
no  relation  of  the  Theodosian  family,  felt  his  dignity 
wounded  by  the  detention  of  the  widow  and  daughter 
of  an  Emperor  in  the  palace  of  the  barbarian. 

Further        Placidia's  husband,  a  senator  named  Olybrius,  was 

fortunes  of  Qne  Qf  ^e  *  shadow-  Emperors  *  whose  coming  and 
the  Theo-  r  0 

dosian       going  marked  the  last  twenty  years  of  the  Empire 

family.  Qf  ^e  West.  In  March,  472,  he  was  proclaimed 
Augustus  by  Ricimer,  the  successor  of  Stilicho  and 


vii.]  Gaiseric.  233 


Aetius  in  the  position  of  'powerful  friend'  of  the 
Emperors.  In  October  of  the  same  year  he  died  of 
dropsy,  having  produced  no  perceptible  eddy  in  the 
swift  downward  current  of  the  fortunes  of  Rome. 
A  grandson  of  his  and  Placidia's,  a  great-grandson 
of  Valentinian  III,  named  also  Olybrius,  was  Consul 
in  491.  His  inconspicuous  name  is  the  last  vestige 
left  in  history  of  the  family  of  the  great  Theo- 
dosius. 

I  have  overpassed  the  proper  limits  of  my  subject 
by  a  few  years  in  order  to  trace  the  fortunes  of  the 
Theodosian family.  The  Theodosian  dynasty  ended, 
as  we  have  seen,,  in  March,  455 ;  and  that  event, 
with  the  immediately  succeeding  sack  of  Rome  by 
Gaiseric,  is  a  fitting  close  to  my  narrative. 

In  375,  before  the  Huns  had  crossed  the  Dniester,  Condu- 
or  the  fugitive  Visigoths  had  crowded  to  the  shore  swn- 
of  the  Danube,  beseeching  the  hospitality  of  the  Em- 
pire, it  seemed  as  if  the  stately  fabric  reared  by  the 
Senate  and  People  of  Rome,  which  had  already 
stood  for  eleven  centuries,  might  stand  for  eleven 
centuries  more.  In  455,  when  the  ships  of  the  Van- 
dal king  were  bearing  away  the  widow  and  daughters 
of  an  Emperor,  the  spoils  of  the  city  and  palace,  and 
a  crowd  of  well-born  captives,  to  his  robber-fortress 
of  Carthage,  the  sceptre  of  the  great  world-conquering 
power  was  broken.  Britain,  Gaul,  Germany,  Spain, 
Africa,  were  lost  to  her  dominion.  Rome  herself 
had  twice  surrendered  to  a  barbarian  conqueror,  and 
had  twice  been  sacked  by  his  soldiers.  The  sacred 
soil  of  Italy  had  for  years  been  trodden  under  foot 


234  Dynasty  of  Theodosius. 


[VII. 


by  the  armies  of  the  Goth,  the  Hun,  and  the  Vandal. 
The  Empire's  reputation  of  unconquerableness  had 
departed  from  her,  and  when  Roman  and  barbarian 
met  on  the  battle-field,  the  expectation  in  both  armies 
was  that  the  legions  would  not  be  victorious.  A 
long  and  wonderful  existence  yet  lay  before  the  New 
Rome  by  the  Bosphorus,  but  from  the  Old  Rome  by 
the  Tiber  the  spell  of  Empire  had  for  a  time  de- 
parted. Yet  already  there  were  indications  in  the 
sky  from  what  quarter  her  new  day  would  dawn. 
Already  the  majestic  figure  of  Leo  betokened  the 
uprising  of  a  new  order  of  men,  the  avowed  succes- 
sors of  a  fisherman  of  Bethsaida,  who  should  rule 
over  a  wider  world  than  the  Roman  Empire,  and 
wield  a  more  absolute  authority  than  had  been 
enjoyed  by  the  proudest  of  the  successors  of  Au- 
gustus. 


INDEX. 


{Modern  place-names  in  Italics?) 


A. 

Ad  Salices  (the  Willows),  battle 
of,  94. 

Aemona  {Lay bach),  127,  131,  153. 
Aequitius,  Superintendent  of  the 

l'alace,  100. 
Aetius,  178,  191-210,  225,  226. 
Agathias,  40  71.,  41  11. 
Agentes  in  Rebus,  42. 
Alamanni,  25,  74. 
Alani,  124,  152,  182,  196,  206. 
Alaric,  131,  137-168. 
Alatheus  the  Ostrogoth,  96,  97. 
Alavivus,  87,  91. 
Ambrose,  St.,  122. 
Ammianus  Marcellinus,  45,  47,  49, 

102,  124. 
Angles,  183. 

Anianus,  Bishop  of  Paris,  194. 
Antioch,  23,  1 18-120. 
Aquileia — besieged  by  Attila,  198. 
Arbogast,  1 10,  128-132. 
Arcadius,  36  n.,  117,  134,  141, 

!53,  155; 

Ardaburius  the  Alan,  177. 

Ardaric,  King  of  the  Gepidae,  196. 

Arian  controversy,  31. 

Ariminum,  plains  of,  164,  172. 

Aristocracy  of  Rome,  not  theo- 
retically hereditary,  8  ;  manners 
of,  in  fourth  century,  47-48. 

Armogast,  Count,  224. 

Army,  Roman,  size  of,  in  the  fourth 
century.  39-40. 

Ascholius,  Bishop  of  Thessalonica, 
109. 

Aspar  the  Alan,  177. 
Ataulfus,  172-175,  208. 
Athanaric  ,  Judge  of  the  Visigoths\ 
79,  86,  111,  112. 


Attains,  162-164,  T74- 
Attila,  King  of  the  Huns,  180-203. 
Augustine,  St.,  216. 
I  Augustus,  work  of,  14. 


B. 

Bacurius,  131. 
Baltic,  the,  183,  184. 
Barbaricum,  76,  79. 
Barritus,  the,  94. 
Batvin  (Gothic  martyr),  79. 
Bauto,  the  Frank,  110,  128,  142. 
I  Bleda,  King  of  the  Huns,  180. 
Bonifacius,  Governor    of  Africa, 

179,  209-214. 
Bora,  a  fierce  wind,  13T. 
Botheric,  121. 
Bretons,  the,  196. 
Britain,  invasion   of  by  Angles 

and  Saxons,  183-184. 
Britain,  Roman  roads  in,  2-4. 
Brutus,  12. 

Burgundians,  the,  180,  196. 
Busentus,  the,  Alaric  buried  in, 
!  168. 


i  Caesar,  work  of,  13,  14;  on  the 

Germans,  55. 
!  Caesarius,  119,  120. 
j  Camps,  20. 

Carthage,  Vandals  at,  215,  218- 
|  220. 

Cassiodorus,  49. 
j  Castinus,  Magister  Militum,  177, 
209.  > 

Cauca  (in  Spain,  the  birthplace  of 

Theodosius),  105. 
Celtic  nationality,  73. 


236 


Index. 


Censorship,  9. 

Chalons,  battle  of,  so  called,  195. 
China,  183. 

Christian  legislation  of  Constan- 

tine,  30,  51  n. 
Christianity,  relation  of  Diocletian 

to,  28. 

—  relation  of  Constantine  to,  29. 

—  relation  of  Constantine's  suc- 
cessors to,  31. 

Chrysopolis,  battle  of,  27. 
Chrysostom,  St.  John,  120. 
Clarissimi,  class  of,  43. 
Claudian,  144. 

Clovis  and  the  vase  of  Soissons, 
69  n. 

Coinage,  Imperial,  of  1st  and  3rd 

centuries  contrasted,  19. 
Coloni,  condition  of,  51-52. 
Comes  Privatarum  Rerum,  42. 

—  Sacrarum  Largitionum,  42. 
Consistory,  Imperial,  37. 
Constantine  the  Great,  24,  31,  51  n. 
■ —  the  Usurper,  152,  163,  207. 
Constantinople,  foundation  of,  26  ; 

siege  of,  10 1. 
Constantius  I,  24-25. 

—  husband  of  Placidia,  176. 

—  secretary  to  Attila,  184,  185. 
Crispus,  son  of  Constantine,  27. 
Crocus,  king  of  the  Alamanni,  25. 
Curiales,  52-53. 


D. 

Dahn,  F.,  60  n. 
Damasus,  Pope,  109. 
Decurio,  52. 

Diocletian,  his  work  of  restoration, 
21-25;  his  death,  26;  his  re- 
lation to  Christianity,  28. 


E. 

East,  Prefecture  of,  23. 
Edeco  the  Hun,  186. 
Ellebichus,  119,  120. 
Emperor,  Roman,  appearance  of, 
34,  35  ;  titles  of,  36. 


Ernak,  son  of  Attila,  190,  203. 
Eucherius,  155,  158. 
Eudoxia,  wife  of  Arcadius,  142. 

—  wife  of  Valentinian  III,  225, 
228,  232. 

—  daughter  of  Valentinian  III, 
225  ;  married  to  Huneric,  232. 

Eugenius,  Emperor,  130,  131. 
Eutropius,  142. 

Extortion  of  Roman  Governors, 
11,  17. 

F. 

Fiesole,  149. 
Firmus,  106. 
Flaccilla,  126. 

Flavianus,  Bishop  of  Antioch,  118- 
120. 

Food  supply  of  Roman  citizens, 

48,  49. 
Franks,  74,  152,  179,  196. 
Freceric  (Gothic  martyr),  79. 
Freeman,  E.  A.,  65  n.,  210  n. 
Frigidus,  battle  of,  131. 
Fritigern,  Visigothic  chieftain,  79, 

86,  87,  91,  92,  96,  97,  in. 

G. 

Gainas  the  Goth,  131,  140,  141. 
Gaiseric,King  of  the  Vandals,  192, 

209-234. 
Galerius,  colleague  of  Diocletian, 

24. 

Galla,  wife  of  Theodosius,  126, 
130. 

Galla  Placidia  (see  Placidia). 
Games  of  the  circus,  49. 
Gau  (=  pagus),  65. 
Gaudentius,  father  of  Aetius,  178. 

—  son  of  Aetius,  226. 

Gauls,  prefecture  of  the,  22,  23. 
Gelimer,  King  of  the  Vandals,  221. 
Geougen,  the,  183. 
Gepidae,  182,  195,  202. 
Germania  of  Tacitus,  55. 
German  kingship,  67-72. 

—  popular  assemblies,  70-72. 
Germans,  condition  of,  54-72. 
Gerontius,  207. 


Index. 


237 


Godigisclus,  King  of  the  Vandals, 
206. 

'Gothic  Architecture,' 75  ;  Gothic 
Christianity,  78  ;  Gothic  lan- 
guage, 76. 

Goihs,  75.  See  Visigoths,  Ostro- 
goths. 

Gratian,  91,  95,  105,  no,  III, 

123-125. 
Greuthungi  (  =  Ostrogoths  ?),  86  n. 
Gunderic,  King  of  the  Vandals, 

208,  209. 
Gunthamund,  King  of  the  Vandals, 

221. 

H. 

Hadrianople,  battle  of  (323),  27. 

 (378),  96>  IO°- 

Helena,  mother  of  Constantine,  24. 

Heraclian,  163,  167. 

Heraclius  the  Eunuch,  226,  228. 

Hermanric,  King  of  the  Ostro- 
goths, 76,  85. 

Henili,  182,  195,  202. 

Hilderic,  King  of  the  Vandals,  221. 

Hippo,  siege  of,  214,  216. 

Hispalis  {Seville)  taken  by  Van- 
dals, 209. 

Honoria,  185,  192. 

Honorius,  134,  146,  152-157,  161- 
164,  166,  176. 

Huneric,  217. 

Huns,  180, 193  ;  description  of,  by 
Jordanes,  81,  83;  ethnological 
character  of,  84 ;  enter  Europe 
(374),  85. 

I. 

Ildico,  wife  of  Attila,  202. 
Illustres,  class  of,  37. 
Illyricum,  Prefecture  of,  23. 
Ingenuus,  174. 
Italy,  Prefecture  of,  23. 


J- 

Jerome,  St.,  45,  47,  174. 
Joannes,  Emperor,  177. 


Jordanes  (Gothic  historian,  wrote 

cir.  550),  81-83. 
Jovian,  90. 

Jovius,  Praetorian  prefect,  161- 
162. 

'  Judges '  of  the  Visigoths,  76. 
Julian  'the  Apostate,'  90. 
Julius,  master  of  the  soldiery,  104. 
Justina,  91,  126,  128. 
Jutes,  the,  183. 

K. 

Kingship  and  national  unity,  67. 
L. 

Lampadius,  153. 
Lancearii,  98. 

Land — settlement  of  the  Germans, 

60-62. 
Latifundia,  50,  51. 
Leo  I,  Pope,  200,  230. 
Leo,  Emperor,  232. 
Libanius,  120. 

Licinius,  his  struggle  with  Con- 
stantine, 27. 

Lupicinus,  Count  of  Thrace,  88- 
93- 

Lupus,  St.,  Bishop  of  Troyes,  195, 
198. 

M. 

Magister  Militiae,  39-40. 
Magister  Officiorum,  42. 
Marcian,  Emperor,  191. 
Marcianople  {Shumla),  92-93. 
Marcomanni,  74. 
Maria,  wife  of  Honorius,  154. 
Mattiarii,  98. 
Maxentius,  Emperor,  26. 
Maximian,  Emperor,  24,  26. 
Maximin  Daza,  Emperor,  24. 

—  ambassador  to  Attila,  186. 
Maximus  (a   wealthy  citizen  of 

Rome),  47. 
Maximus,  Duke  of  Moesia,  88-93. 

—  Magnus  Clemens,  usurper,  123, 
125,  126. 


238 


Index. 


Maximtis,  Emperor,  207,  228,  229. 
Milan  (Mediolanum),  23. 
Money,  purchasing  power  of,  46  n. 


N. 

Nicaea,  Council  of,  29-30. 
Nicomedia  in  Bithynia,  24-25. 
Nicopolis,  city  of,  owned  by  Paula, 
47- 

Notitia  Utriusque  Imperii,  38,  39, 
40  n.,  41,  42,  44. 


O. 

Oath  taken  by  soldiers  to  Emperor, 
36. 

Offices,  sale  of,  under  the  Empire, 

43- 

Official  hierarchy  of  the  Empire, 
37-44- 

Olybrius,  'Shadow-Emperor,'  232. 
Olympius,  155-157,  159. 
Onegesius  the  Hun,  187,  188. 
Optila,  henchman  of  Aetius,  227. 
Orleans,  siege  of,  194. 
Orosius,  1  72. 

Ostrogoths,  75,  76,  99,  182,  195, 
202. 


P. 

Pagus,  German,  65-66. 
Paris,  J  94. 

Paula,  piety  and  wealth  of,  47. 
Persian   Empire,  relation   of,  to 

Roman,  6-7. 
Placidia,  daughter  of  Theodosius, 

130,  171,  174-180,  184,  191. 
Placidia,  daughter  of  Valentinian 

III,  225,  228,  232. 
Pliny,  50. 

Pollentia,  battle  of,  146. 
Possidius,  Bishop  of  Calama,  216. 
Praefectus  Annonae,  49. 
—  Praetorio,  office  of,  38,  39. 
Praepositus  Sacri  Cubiculi,  41. 
Prefectures,  the  four  great,  22-3. 


Priscus,  ambassador  to  Attila,  186, 
189. 

Probus,  wealth  of,  46. 
Procopius,  166,  210. 
Proculus,  136. 
Proletariate,  46  11. 
Pulcheria,  sister  of  Theodosius  II, 
191,  228. 

Q. 

Quaestor,  42. 

R. 

Radagaisus,  145,  146,  148,  149. 
Ravenna,  Honorius  at,  146. 
Richomer,  Count  of  the  Domestics, 
97- 

Ricimer,  232. 

Roman  Empire,  boundaries  of,  1- 

7- 

Romanus,  106. 

Rome,  sieges  of,  1 59  ;  entered  by 
Alaric,  164  ;  plunder  of,  by  the 
Vandals,  231. 

Rufinus,  Praetorian  Prefect,  135- 
142. 

S. 

Salarian     Gate,     Alaric  enters 

Rome  through,  164. 
Sallust,  palace  of,  burned,  165. 
Sangiban,  King  of  the  Alani,  196. 
Saphrax,  Ostrogothic  chief,  96,  97. 
Sarmatians.  73,  74. 
Saras  the  Goth,  149,  157,  164. 
Saulus  the  Alan,  131,  147. 
Saxons,  the,  183,  196. 
Sebastian,  General,  96,  100. 
—  son-in-law  of  Bonifacius,  224. 
Seebohm,  E.,  62,  68  n. 
Senate  of  Rome,  7-9  ;  behaviour 

of  Emperors  to,  15-16. 
Serena,  136,  153,  160. 
Severus,  24. 

Siege  artillery,  Roman,  102. 
Silentiarii,  33. 

Silvanus  the  Goldsmith,  185. 
Singeric,  175. 


Index.  239 


Sirmium,  23-95. 
—  vases  of,  184,  185,  192. 
Slaves,  condition  of,  50,  51. 
Slavonic  nationality,  73. 
Spalato  (near  Salona),  27  n. 
Spectabiles,  class  of,  38. 
Stilicho,  135-158. 
Stubbs,  Bishop,  65  n. 
Suevi,  182,  206. 
Symmachus,  wealth  of,  46. 


T. 

Tacitus,  Germania  of,  55,  60-62, 

68,  71. 
Tatianus,  136. 

Theodoric,  King  of  the  Visigoths, 
192-3. 

Theodosius  the  Elder,  106. 

—  the  Great,  105,  106-133,  139. 

—  II,  son  of  Arcadius,  155,  177, 
186,  191. 

—  son  of  Ataulfus  and  Placidia, 
175- 

Thermantia,  wife   of  Honorius, 

154,  158. 
Thessalonica,  121,  126. 
Thincsus,  epithet  of  German  Mars, 

70  n. 

Thing,  meeting  of  the  Folk,  70. 
Thiudans  (=  king  in  Gothic),  72. 
Thorismund  the  Visigoth,  196, 197. 
Thrasamund,  King  of  the  Vandals, 
221. 

Thraustila,  henchman  of  Aetius, 
227. 

Ticinum  (Pavta),  156. 
Trajan,  General-in-Chief,  100. 
Tribunician  power,  10. 
Trier  (Augusta  Trevirorurn),  23. 


U. 

Uldin  the  Hun,  149. 
Ulfilas,  Apostle  of  the  Goths,  77, 
78,  110. 

V. 

Valens,  Emperor,  87-98. 
Valentinian  I,  90,  91. 

—  II,  91,  125-129. 

—  Ill,  177,  184,  191,  200,  225-7. 
Valerian, Count  of  Imperial  Stables, 

100. 

Vandals,  the,  204-232. 
Venice,  foundation  of,  199. 
Victor,  son  of  usurper  Maximus, 
128. 

Victor  Vitensis,  224. 
Village  settlements  of  the  Germans, 
57.  58. 

Visigoths,  75,  87-99,  179. 
Volker-wanderung,  the,  215. 

W. 

Waitz,  G.,  60  n. 

Walamir,  King  of  the  Ostrogoths, 
196. 

Walia,  King  of  the  Visigoths,  1 76. 
Wealthy  Romans,  fortunes  of,  46. 

Y. 

York  (Eboracum),  25-26. 
Z. 

Zercon,  the  Moor,  190. 
Zosimus,  133. 


THE 


END. 


BY  THE  SAME  AUTHOR. 


Italy  and  her  Invaders. 

Illustrated  with  Plates  and  Maps. 


Vols.  I-IV,  A.D.  376-553. 

Svo.  3/.  Ss. 


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